Second guessing myself on a nem

My boyfriend bought a small long tentacle anemone for his 29 gallon biocube on Sunday. (Yep, I know the tank is too small, but I had forgotten while he was picking it out and the LFS gave us a GREAT deal, or so it seemed. 2 clowns and a nem for $50.)

My question is DID I DO THE RIGHT THING? I froze the nem late this afternoon because I thought it was dying and felt this would be quicker and more humane. Now after going back to the LFS I'm second guessing myself, and worried I was wrong and may have killed a healthy nem. Here's what happened....The nem never attatched itself to anything and just kinda rolled around. He seemed like he was going to a few times then he moved again. Last night he started looking like he was blowing a bubble gum bubble out of his mouth. This morning he looked about the same (It's Tuesday evening now) then by late afternoon most of his tentacles looked kinda like spaghetti and his mouth was open very wide with some "bubbles" popping out. There was no sign that he was breaking appart, but he was pooping a lot. His mouth did appear to be "gaping" since the opening was slack. When I went back to the LFS they had one or two in the tank that were blowing the same kind of bubbles and had their mouths open really wide and the owner said they must be hungry (even the one that looked stringy). So now I'm wondering...do they do that when they're hungry? There was marine snow and fish food in my BF's tank at the time, so it shouldn't have been hungry. Some fish food even landed right on it and it did not eat it or hold onto the food. I always second guess myself when I put something out of it's misery, especially since the shop owner insisted that he couldn't understand what happened since "it was really healthy" when he sold it to us. Any thoughts will be appreciated, Thanks in advance

 

Anemone's, unlike fish, do not die overnight. It's actually quite an extended process. A gaping mouth is often one indicator of poor health. However, since the anemone is so new to the aquarium, I wouldn't be too concerned of this particular scenario quite yet. The simplest way to know the current condition of an anemone, is by the stickiness of the foot. When an anemone is in poor condition, the foot looses it's adhesiveness. If it was attached to something at the store, it's extremely unlikely that it would decline at such a rapid pace as to die within a day or two. On the other hand, if the foot or any part of the anemone was severely damaged at the time of removal, this will greatly increase the likeliness of the anemone dying. However, death is still highly unlikely to occur over the course of two days.

 

you gave it the death penalty by freezing it? WTH???

 

I know freezing a dying fish is the most humane way. It pretty much just puts them to sleep. Not sure on a nem tho.

 

Is there a faster, more humane way to do it? I would not have done so unless I thought it was suffering, which apparently I may have been wrong about. This sucks

 

Thats just cold!

 

I honestly don't know if it was attatched to anything at the store. When I saw it, it was not, but the dealer said that it had been and he removed it. Why he would do that I don't know, since we hadn't asked to buy it yet or to see it more clearly. Unfortunately, the foot was still sticky when I took it out. I feel terrible I was afraid that it would poison the tank if it died in there and kill everything else. CRAP! I hate it when my stupidity costs something it's life.

 

always ask here first! Sucks about the nem, but ya may have very well done the right thing. Now read up before ya get the next so you'll know.

 

He could have been pooping, he could have been hungry...it could have been a lot of things. Anemones do a lot of strange looking things, but most of the time they are healthy.

Anemones don't usually die that quick. I lost a RBTA and it took about 2 weeks to complete the process.

 

When something doesn't have a brain to process responses from a nervous system, it can't suffer.

I imagine it would degrade until eventually it simply ceased to be.