One of the strategies many, if not all Nimbochromis do to attract a meal/prey, is to feign death.
They lay on their side and effect the blotchy colors that attract scavengers, and if small enough, the cichlid quickly comes to life and eats them.
The death "fake out" could have easily attracted the big pleco (or any other fish in the tank), who put a start of a hole, before the cichlid had time to figure out what was up, and escaped with a minor abrasion.
Pleco's are not a normal part of an African cichlids instinctual cadre of creatures to be wary of (especially Pleco's that would quickly make use of an apparently rotting corpse), so in my opinion they have no place in rift lake African cichlid tank ( especially a nine inch one) .
Below.... a Pleco dining on a piece of fish flesh.
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