Its common names include golf stick pearly mussel and ring pink.

This mussel was native to Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and West Virginia.

Ring pink mussels are native to the eastern and southeastern regions of the United States.

The inner layer of the shell (nacre) has a salmon to deep purple color and a white border.

It is unknown if the ring pink mussel utilizes a specific fish species or is more generalist in their attachment.

They exhibit ovoviviparous reproduction and reach sexual maturity at a late stage.

[6] Freshwater mussels typically exhibit burrowing behavior in juvenile stages.

[14] Construction of dams on large rivers has caused declining numbers of the ring pink.

[15] It is hard to find the mussel through typical surveying methods, so small populations of the ring pink may still exist.

In the past, the ring pink mussel was widely distributed among the Ohio River and its tributaries.

These rivers span Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama.

By 1991, only five populations of the ring pink mussel were known and occurred in Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia.

Fish and Wildlife Services cite dam construction as a major cause of Ring Pink endangerment.

Dam construction reduces the availability of preferred gravel and sand habitat for the Ring Pink.

Gravel dredging and channel maintenance also contribute to habitat loss for the Ring Pink mussel.

Fish and Wildlife Services publicly announced a review of the Ring Pink Mussel on November 6, 1991.

[16] This document provided no in-depth evaluation of species’ recovery,[5] and no 5-year review was published in the decade after this notification.

Habitat threats include overutilization, disease, predation, regulations, and other anthropogenic and natural factors affecting its existence.

Based on these results, the 2011 5-year review asserted that the ring pink should remain an endangered species.

This review presented a similar five-factor analysis and stated no need for change in listing.

Fish and Wildlife Recovery Plan is to downlist the ring pink mussel from endangered to threatened.

[15] Experts could perform surveys in the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers to find sites with suitable habitat.

The round hickorynut, another mollusk that could be considered a potential proxy, is hosted by the eastern sand darter (Ammocrypta pellucida).