I've had him for just a week. Tonight I was kind of worried because he was just staying on the bottom and not on the sides or in the cave like usual. Even when we did the PWC he didn't really move much at all. I thought maybe he was just a mellow fish. I shut off the light shortly after and just now went to check on him and he was on his back. 
He didn't look unusual, just his belly was kind of bloated and his bottom looked a little poochy. I just found out tonight that dh turned off the air a couple of days ago because the pump was rattling (it does it every so often, but I just unplug for an hour or two and plug it back in and it's fine). Well with all the problems with the weather and flooding basement we've been having I didn't even notice the pump wasn't running. Could that have been a problem? He had been very active and cleaned up almost all the algae in the tank. I was worried a couple of days ago that he might be hungry so I put in an algae wafer after lights out and a zucchini today and he didn't touch either one.
I also have high ph but the lfs told me they did too. They had ordered the bristlenoses because I had asked them to and they said this was "the last one" but now that I think of they didn't say other people bought them. Maybe they all died.
Maybe they're lying about the ph too but the other fish I've gotten from their have been ok (knocking hard on wood).
I'm so bummed. This is my first fish loss since the end of october when I first started posting here. I don't think I'll buy another bn-when we had a tank a long time ago we never had luck with plecos (all we knew about was commons back then but they never lived long enough to get big anyway). Just not sure what to do about the algae and stuff but if this guy couldn't make it I'm sure I can't keep otos alive either.
eta: I have a HOB filter on both tanks so there was surface movement, just no air bubbles.
eta again: The nitrates were a little high tonight because we had NO water in the house plus there was a snowstorm last week (unrelated) so I was about 3 days late with the weekly water change. I did check levels during that time and nitrates only got to about 30 but tonight it was between 30 and 40.
He didn't look unusual, just his belly was kind of bloated and his bottom looked a little poochy. I just found out tonight that dh turned off the air a couple of days ago because the pump was rattling (it does it every so often, but I just unplug for an hour or two and plug it back in and it's fine). Well with all the problems with the weather and flooding basement we've been having I didn't even notice the pump wasn't running. Could that have been a problem? He had been very active and cleaned up almost all the algae in the tank. I was worried a couple of days ago that he might be hungry so I put in an algae wafer after lights out and a zucchini today and he didn't touch either one. I also have high ph but the lfs told me they did too. They had ordered the bristlenoses because I had asked them to and they said this was "the last one" but now that I think of they didn't say other people bought them. Maybe they all died.
Maybe they're lying about the ph too but the other fish I've gotten from their have been ok (knocking hard on wood).I'm so bummed.
This is my first fish loss since the end of october when I first started posting here. I don't think I'll buy another bn-when we had a tank a long time ago we never had luck with plecos (all we knew about was commons back then but they never lived long enough to get big anyway). Just not sure what to do about the algae and stuff but if this guy couldn't make it I'm sure I can't keep otos alive either.eta: I have a HOB filter on both tanks so there was surface movement, just no air bubbles.
eta again: The nitrates were a little high tonight because we had NO water in the house plus there was a snowstorm last week (unrelated) so I was about 3 days late with the weekly water change. I did check levels during that time and nitrates only got to about 30 but tonight it was between 30 and 40.
RIP poor BN pleco. I'm sure you will be missed! 
little plec!
