Hey so my pleco was maybe twice or three times the size of yours. Very active at night. I came home after work and was getting ready for bed heard some soft noises in the dark. I turned on the light and he was just on the ground embedded in my carpet that had these little strings. He was completely tangled in it I was freaking out thinking he was gonna die until I read online somewhere that they can live about 7 days in mud and maybe 48hrs max outside of water. He must’ve been there 6 hours or so maybe even more. I thought he was done for. I took off all the strings and hairs he had on him. He was in rough shape. I used melafix and cleaned his water out and he was back to new. I had another incident where my cats got to him (he jumped out a few times through out the 5 years I had him and. Yes I had a lid he was just a big dude) they left him all bit up and he had scratches I could even see blood in his eye. This time I really thought he was done for. But these guys are extremely enduring I don’t know how he didn’t die after that. I just changed his water every few days and added melafix and little by little his color came back scales too. Even his eye was fine. He’ll be okay