Here is my list of things to look for in buying a health gigantea.
In the order that I notice them, not in the order of importance.
1. Not bleached
2. Tight mouth
3. Disk held strongly above the substrate. (The disk is the area where the tentacles are located) You don't want a "floppy" anemone.
4. Tentacles at least 1/2" long.
5. Are there other dead anemones in the tank. (They died of something, probably an infection. That healthy anemone you are looking at may have the same infection, its just not that far along yet.)
6. Active feeding response (Have the LFS feed it in front of you a watch it pull the food all the way into its mouth) Don't fall for the, "we just fed it" routine. If it is healthy, it will still react, even if they just fed it right before you walked in the door.
7. No holes with "spaghetti" coming out of them under the foot. If it passes the other tests and you want it, check the foot after they dislodge the anemone and
before they bag it. If you see any white squiggly things on the bottom of the foot, have them put it back. It is an absolute deal breaker.
Not all of these are deal breakers for me, but if more than one thing is wrong, its not worth the chance.
Tight mouth, firm body and no foot damage are musts. Sometimes other dead/dying anemones will be enough to say no as well, but if it looks reeeeeally good, I still my take a chance.
If it is eating well, I can overlook slightly shorter tentacles and being a little bit bleached. If it has a good zooxanthellae population (the lower 3/4 of the tentacles are brown) and there is good tentacle length, I may be willing to over look a mediocre feeding response.
Here are two things that mean absolutely nothing.
1. Bright colors - I have read several times on this board that, "the colors are very vivid, so it must be healthy". WRONG! Anemones, like sps corals, tend to lose their vivid colors when they are in conditions less than ideal. Vivid anemones (especially blue and purple) just haven't been held in holding facilities very long. That could be a good thing, it could be a bad thing, depending on the facility. I know a guy who holds his anemones for months at his facility overseas. By the time he has them sent to him, they "know" aquarium life, but their colors aren't usually awesome. He has better success than most, but he still loses a few.
2. They are sticky to the touch - This means nothing. I have had giganteas in late stages of decomposition that I couldn't get off my hand without having the tentacles rip off and stick to my fingers. Anemones seem to me to have a feeding sting and a defensive sting. The defensive sting can be very powerful or it can be slight, but there is no feeding response associated with it. The defensive sting can happen when the anemone is a heap of goo. The feeding sting, with the anemone bringing the food to its mouth and extending its stomach, only happens when the anemone is relatively healthy.
That was a little more than I was expecting to write, but I hope it helps.
