Sad sad day for my baby pleco. R.I.P. Today.
My girlfriend and I were doing water changes in my baby discus tank ("150L, bare bottom tank, 1 random cave for the pleco"), which consisted of 15 baby discus and 2 chocolate plecos.
While doing water changes I noticed that one of the pleco was out of the cave. So I was pretty surprised to see him/she outside. While doing water change I had to lift up the cave ("Because all the leftover food keep getting into the pleco cave.").
Once I lifted up the cave I wanted to take it out of the tank, but the other pleco was still in there so my girlfriend suggested doing something with it that I didn't understand. So I place it back down near the bottom left of the tank. As i was going to put it down, my girlfriend screamed out. ("Don't squash the pleco you idiot"). So I quickly lifted at the last minute before squishing the pleco that was outside of the cave.
Then my girlfriend notice something was up with the pleco. Girlfriend: "I think there’s something wrong with the pleco", I replied "Its fine", Girlfriend "But why is it white and dirty". Then I put my finger and waved the water around the pleco. It started floating and went back down. So I took the net and fished the dead pleco out.
When I flicked the pleco over to see its tummy, I saw orange spots on the outside of the body and red on the inside lower body of the pleco which looked like interior bleeding. I don't know how it died as it was alive in the morning when my girlfriend was feeding the fish. Could it be the Tetra color bits that are emphasizing the red color too much?
I quickly fished the living one out to see if similar symptoms. Nothing was on the other pleco?
Could someone help me identify what was the cause of death? Could my other pleco be infected and died soon?