We've had a common bristlenose for 3 months and we never see him cleaning/eating algae. He's about 2.5 inches and has a ton of bristles. He's in a 40 gallon tank with a 10 inch common pleco and they are often in the same cave together, so he is not getting harassed. The other fish are various tetras, 2 albino cats and a few otos. There is driftwood, a tube and a cave for him to hide in. He usually hides behind one of the plants. We have never seen him eating the algae wafers or veggies or even the shrimp even under blue light with all the room lights off. Any suggestions?

Thanks for the suggestions. We've tried zucchini and we give him and big Plec Hikari wafers. I watched him for an hour under blue light last night and he moved around a very little bit but then back to the cave. I keep telling the lazy bum that we Could have gotten a blue phantom L128 instead of him...ha!

Re getting a female, I don't want to upset our big guy with too many Plecs in his tank.

High grif , seeing as the feed thing didn't work ,how about some
different coloured lights and add some dance music
Seriously, I've read on here of people feeding a mango seed(still with a bit of the flesh on it) and their plecs go nuts on it.
Or maybe you just have lazy bristly that doesn't want to be seen.
J

Ha! Maybe he needs more hiding places to feel secure. We'll just have to wait and see if the dud turns into a dude about town.