Should I move my plecos?

[sabrinah]

A while ago I bought an adult l129 and it refused to move or eat for weeks, so I bought 2 more small ones to keep it company. That worked and made everyone happy. One of the little guys disappeared recently and I just uncovered it's bones from deep inside a dragon stone hole. I'm scared the other little guy will meet the same fate. Should I move the two plecos into another tank until the little one grows large enough not to fit in holes? In theory they could still get stuck in the spider wood if they really tried but I'm pretty sure that is far less likely than death by dragon stone.

[b.reder]

How do you know that it didn't die of natural causes?

[sabrinah]

It's skeleton was wedge really tight in the hole with the head so deep I couldn't get it out without using planting tweezers and breaking it. Where the hole was located there's no way it could have ended up there accidentally.

[bekateen]

Did anybody (human, dog, etc) do anything that could have startled it to dart into a tight space it became trapped in?

Regards, Eric

[sabrinah]

Not that I'm aware of. The tank is high enough that my dog can't see it and my cat isn't fond of the giant betta in the tank, so she pays it no mind. The betta stays far away from the plecos since the original adult took some of his scales off when he startled it after it had just been put in the tank. I'm the only one around the tanks and I take care not to bang things around. Many of the holes are large enough for the little ones to safely explore. I'm guessing the one that died simply chose the wrong hole to check out. I'm very worried that the last little one will get stuck. This one is absolutely gorgeous and I'd love to try my hand at breeding it some day.

[bekateen]

I had a cory like that today. Found it dead, wedged in a rocky crevice. Made me very sad. Sorry for your loss.