my rubbernose has refused to eat algae, most of the time hes hiding but seldom does he come out to graze on algae whenevr hes out hes on the glass. any help?

you dont see it when theyre eating algae. unless you sit there and stare 24hours...... they dont eat much.

Raith is right, you will hardly see them eat. They are hiding little creatures and prefer it to be calm and dark. How long have you had him? IF he is new, it may take him awhile to get use to things.
He may be a skiddish one also. Be patient with him and keep an eye on him, they are harder to tell when something is wrong, but I would guess he is just scared.

he is verrry skidish and when one of my other fish comes by he flees, is this abnormal?

Well my pleco does the same, has your pleco got lots of hiding places?

looots of hiding places too many to be infact :crp

theyre more active when its dark. remember they are noturnal[sp] animals.

and theyre really calm fishes, they will be skiddish when a GF touches them or something. dont worry, if your pleco is not changing color, they wont be leaving you anytime soon. they live up to 20 years..

Yep, the males especially seem to be pretty shy. Even my bristlenoses don't like to be seen and only come out at night or when I put in zuchanni. And even then, some will run at the first sign of movement in the room.

Do this, look down into the tank from the open top. Can you see "tracks" through the algae on the glass? Often you can't see it from the outside, but when you look down into the tank you can see where the pleco's been chewing away when you aren't there.

I'll try that myaj