The pearl oyster Pteria sterna produces pearls from animals gathered from the wild but spat collection is increasingly unreliable. Therefore, hatchery support is required to supply spat for aquaculture operations. In this study is described the hatchery processes to produce spat of P. sterna in a pilot‐commercial grade. Growth and survival (relative and absolute) are described for the different developmental stages and critical aspects identified. Growth (height and length) was analysed using depensatory hypothesis and the multi‐model inference (MMI). Spat production cycle is described (egg to spat in size and time); spat ≥ 3 mm = 70 days. Average absolute growth rate for shell height was 7.8 µm/day during embryonic phase, 14.5 µm/day during metamorphosis and 71.4 µm/day for post‐larvae phase. Survival was 75% after 48 hr (D‐larvae stage), 25% at day 14 (umbo stage) and 12% at day 28 (pediveliger stage). Metamorphosis was the main critical phase since survival drop to 0.32%. From 32.5 million eggs, 80,000 commercial spat were produced. Early growth in P. sterna showed depensatory pattern since coefficient of variation in height data increased (2%–28%), and this was supported by MMI. The hatchery procedures presented here guarantee the production of spat for aquaculture activities. Growth depensation leads to the application of a high performance function to analyse individual size‐at‐age variability and to parametrize the models without sub underestimation of values. The best fitted model to describe early growth in P. sterna is the Schnute model case 1.