My bristlenose just died

[vygec]

Man im so upset, my first fish just died. Puzzled why it has happened.
One of my BN Plecos was the victim. It was just over an inch long, was perfect last night. The tank has been running for around 7 weeks now, and has been cycled since the 3rd week.

Admittedly yesterday, i added 10 neons and 15 amano shrimp. The last time i had added fish, was 2 weeks ago, did a water change on friday, and brought the fish yesterday.
Just carried out some tests and all seems fine:
Ammonia : 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5

Cant seem to understand why the BN died?!, my other one seems fine. Ive been very careful since getting the tank i.e water changes, doing tests. Just a bit upset to see one of my fish die

 

[OrionGirl]

How and what were you feeding the bristlenose?

 

[NJ Devils Fan]

How long have you had it? Are there many hiding places? Maybe there was only one good one that was taken by the other BN and it would the one who died when it came by. Just a suggestion.

 

[vygec]

I was waiting for the algea to come down by a certain amount. I was then planning on feeding it some veggies, uptil now it was only feeding on the algea (have i messed up here? )

In the tank there is a piece of driftwood, about 40cm long..their were places for both plecos to hide (as i witnessed on many ocassions..so not entirely sure if this would be the cause.

Im just getting paranoid, that i will also loose my other plec!. I added a bit of cucumber last night, so hopefully will get some luck here. Tests are showing nothing wrong, so keeping fingers crossed. should i immedaitely add another BN plec into tank, or see how my current one is going?

 

[OrionGirl]

I've never relied exclusively on algae to feed my bristle nose. They get algae tabs and a few meaty foods with each feeding (every other day in my tanks). This way, they can graze all day, but I don't worry about them starving.

I wouldn't add another fish until you control the algae. Limiting nutrients, and more frequent water changes usually do the trick.

 

[yhbae]

Also, I've heard from more than one sources that bristlenoses have tendency to die off frequently at around 1 inch in size. I bought mine at 1.5 inches and they are growing nicely with no issues so far...

Does anyone know why they have this tendency?