was my pleco dead?

My pleco had been acting weird for the past 3-4 days. He wasn't sucking on the glass and just laying in the middle of the tank. Last night I noticed my pleco was in a grayish color. I checked his mouth and it wasn't moving. I poked him softly with my net a few times and still he wasn't moving. But then his color changed back to his normal color. Yet he still wasn't moving. I flipped him over and noticed his belly had white spots. I'm pretty sure he was dead but the color change made me think otherwise.

Also another question is I noticed my pleco was sucking on some my goldfish food last week which he never did b4 for the 3 months I had him. He seemed to like it but was never able to swallow it since it was a pellet and the other fishes would steal it from him. He seemed to get mad and would always lay in the front of the tank to wait for the next feeding time and try to get one. Was it the other fish bullying him for food causing him to die?

Was he playing dead and just scared?

 

Some general questions.
Size of the tank?
What kind of fish you have?
How long has the tank been running?
Current numbers ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, ph

You might want to consider some alge flakes if he doesn't eat much. Those sink to the bottom quickly.

 

the tank is 10 gallons. two goldfishes and the tank has been running for 3 months.

 

Plecos are warm water, and goldfish are cold.

Most goldfish really need at least 29 gallons. They're pretty dirty and get awfully big. Do you know what kind of goldfish they are?

Pleco is a pretty generic term for fish that range from 5 inches to 24 inches. Either way, they also need a larger tank. If it is a common pleco, it requires more space than most people can even offer--not sure on the number but I imagine well over 55 gallons. They also could use driftwood.

These fish don't belong together or in such a small tank, sorry it could be an ammonia spike, malnutrition, or stress. We need more details. Do you know the Nitrogen Cycle? Are you heating this tank? Testing the water?

Also, I'm confused--is the fish currently dead?

 

Yes he is dead. sorry for the confusion on the first post. My main question is do plecos change color when they die. He wasn't moving or breathing from what I saw but he changed from gray to black and had white spots on his belly which were never there before. He was about 4 - 5 inches and was dark black.

 

I'm sorry you lost him But you'll need to make some changes to keep your remaining fish healthy. As was said, goldfish prefer cooler temperatures. They also need a larger tank. (As do plecos. A 10 gallon aquarium isn't big enough for a single goldfish or pleco, regardless of type.) Goldfish need a bare minimum of 20 gallons for one fish, and an additional 10 for each additional fish. That's not ideal, just the minimum. I seem to recall comet goldfish needing 30 gallons miniumum, with an additional 20 gallons for each additional comet. What kind of goldfish do you have?

Also, it is very important to understand how the nitrogen cycle works. I think more fish die from a lack of understanding this cycle than anything else. Even though your tank is likely cycled by now, it's still important to understand.

 

We can't really answer the question of what happened to the pleco without more info. Answer to your color question, is partially here:


In short--yes. It's a mood thing. It might have been still alive, though distressed and dying. Or it was a post-mortem reflex. I would be concerned with what killed him is going to kill the other fish in the tank, if it were me. I still believe an ammonia spike. or just stress--wrong temps even.

Good luck. please consider rehoming the goldfish. If you can't get a 30 gallon (trust me, it seems big but all goldfish are big), could you return them to a store or give them to a friend? I am the last to be a pest about these types of things but they really have no chance long term. They don't stay the size of the tank. They simply get crowded until they die. Theyre pretty dirty little buggers and can slowly suffocate themselves, not to mention mess up their organs. I saw a full grown goldfish in a 10 gallon. It was sad. It could barely turn around.