My experience has been a weird one, to be honest.
I purchased a GBTA, not so long ago, from a friend of mine who own's a shop. It was a healthy one... probably about 4-5". It found some shade and hung out there for a bit. My false percs wanted nothing to do with it, so I bought some small maroons to help it out. You see, my cleaner shrimp loved pulling the food right out of it's mouth! Made me livid, but what can you do right? So, that's what justified the purchase of the maroons... yes, I studied the maroons, and yes I knew they got real aggressive later on in life.
Well, my poor 'nem never received any protection from the shrimp. I'd feed it half of a silverside, and here they'd come! I'd even try and swat them a bit, with my... heck, I don't know what it's called... mechanical arm thingy (to keep my arm out of the water as much as possible), and they'd go after the food when I walked away! Smart little boogers!
Sadly, I went to work one night and came back to find my nem half-chopped up by my K4.
It sucked! I realized then and there that if I get another one, the maroons are gone. I believe they hosted it too quickly, and beat the dog snot out of it. Basically, they were too aggressive.
My false percs have taken a liking to a my frogspawn. They don't get down and dirty like the maroons did with the nem, but they hang out around it all day. My maroons love my xenia now, and they are all living nicely on opposite sides of the tank from the percs. I do want to try my hand at another one down the road, but I've come to the harsh realization that I'm not ready for one yet.
Sorry about the long, drawn out explanation; but 'nems are super cool parts of a reef tank, and they need to be handled cautiously. I highly recommend reading Karen's link:
http://www.karensroseanemones.com/ before getting one. I read it thoroughly before getting mine, and that's one woman who knows her 'nems! Shout out to Adam for posting that link up in our old forum, too; but, I'm simply not ready for one.
You know the sad part? I was going to take it back to my buddy's LFS the day I found it stuck in my powerhead... Ugh!
