That is not an anemone in "pouting mode". Pouting mode does not include the grey/tan fog of his tissue being distroyed through osmotic pressure bursting his cellwalls.
I cut RTBA's in pieces with sisscors, octoforcation from medium RTBA is my current best record. None of them die, none of them have the grey fog appear.
Sadly, I have only seen a couple come back from the sort of damage (far more damageing to the animal that anything a blade can do) you have done to him.
Unless you are the god of salinity matching, your waterchange likely was as damageing to him as anything. Keep in mind, when free floating salt crystals contact anemone tissue, it looks similar to what happens when a shotgun touches human tissue.
I cant really think of a better way to ensure death to be as certian with an RTBA than a Q-tank.
WTH do you think is going to be carried in an anemone that will be having any benifit from Q'ing? I wish I would have seen this thread sooner, what a waste of an animal.
To break this down for you, you have an animal with ruptured necrotizeing tissue all over. Its in a state where it critically needs energy to live, however it is way too damaged and drained of energy to consume/digest any solid food. Its starving right now, as it has been since bringing it home and bursting it. Its only chance at living is going to be getting into a very very healthly system, with some mild flow to clear away the dead tissue, and adquate lighting to provide it with the energy it needs to try repair itself. Also, glass requires anemones to expend much more energy to cling to its surface (something required for them to live). Essentially they have to remain flexed to try to hang on, where as the surface of rock enables them to fix down inside the cracks and pockets and use very little energy to stay in place.
Best odds of it living? Stick it where you should have put it in the first place. If your salinity of your display is different than your Q-tank, then its likely going to be a hopeless cause anyway, but some slow drip aclimation, and if possible under lighting that it can actually use to make energy to heal/live would be its best shot.
Now, in the future, perhaps thinking could benifit. Q-tanks for fish enableing a low salinity close to that of there own blood reduces the energy they need to expend in expelling salt, while the low salinity is often inadquate to support the life of the parasitic troublemakers that could be on them. Q-tanking species of coral to closely examen them for redbugs or nudieating flatworms, and performing procedures to kill/remove them has a purpose. I would love to hear what your goal/reasoning from Q-tanking an anemone is/was.
