potatoes?

[Thalan]

My plecos usually get scraps of whatever vegetable is being cooked for dinner (mostly squash and the occasional zucchini) but I always have baby red potatoes around and they dont go bad very quickly. Ive fed them before since its really easy to skin one and toss it in (sinks by itself) but is it really a good pleco food? I worry that perhaps its all starch and no real nutritional value. Anyone got any info on this?
Also just to be specific I'm feeding
Chaetostoma milesi
Hemiloricaria parva
Bristlenose
Farlowella
So any dietary info on those particular species would be appreciated

 

[Mount_Prion]

As crazy as this sounds, my fist thought upon reading this was that potatoes could be toxic to fish. They are in the same family as tomatoes and nightshade, after all.

 

[Thalan]

hmm thats distressing, but Ive seen tomatoes recommended as pleco food before, never tried it because of the mess though.

 

[Mount_Prion]

If tomatoes are fine I'm sure these are too. It's not like lettuce is full of nutrients and people feed that to plecs. I'm surprised tomatoes are OK though, as they're one of the most acidic foods you can eat. In theory I'm not even supposed to eat them due to acid reflux! But I guess they're OK for plecos...

 

[Thalan]

Oh here we go. Posted by Davo in the dietary thread that I read years ago and apparently forgot the details
"Potatoes (I would soak these for a long time and wash thoroughly as they contain a lot of starch that is bad for water quality, although otherwise a great food source)"