Asian Fish Spas

A newly emerged "fish spa" is becoming fashionable in many hot spring resorts, and has attracted even more customers, all curious about this peculiar treatment.

At such a spa, many Garra Rufa, a type of small tropical fish, also nicknamed Chinchin Yu, nibble fish or simply doctor fish, are put in hot springs. As they can live and swim freely in at least 43-degree-hot waters, they are naturally used for the treatment of skin diseases in such spas.

When placed in the spa, these fish can feed themselves on the dead cells of the human body, since they only consume such cells, leaving the healthy skin of the human body to grow. The whole process is reportedly free of pain. It won't hurt and the bather might feel a pleasant tingling on his or her skin.

The fish species are often found in the river basins in the Middle East, including Syria, Iraq, Iran and Turkey, and thus is also called Turkish Fish. It is legally protected from commercial exploitation in Turkey due to concerns over harvesting for export.

In 2006, the first Asian Doctor Fish spa resort opened in Hakone, Japan. These fish are used to clean the feet of the bathers at the spa. Recently, such spas become fashionable in resorts in China and South Korea.

 

that's freaky. i'd get scared if there were things swimming all over me. and i'm ticklish, so i probably wouldn't like them cleaning my feet

 

lol id make sure to wear tight swimming trunks before getting into a spa like this, id hate to have these guys swimming up my regular boarder style swim trunks and nibbling on my tupac and g-unit (i seriously call my package this)

 

you must get lots of girls that way

 

wtfooo LOL nibbling aye..

 

kinda gross...like maggots on dead bodies...

 

wuahahaha...its gross i agree...but not THAT gross haha
its kinda yuckie....the fishes are gonna nibble on someones toes for example and then hes gonna nibble on u...
hahaha

 

woot let the fishes bite through the bra's and underwears!

 

nibble nibble tickle ickle lmfao!!! if i'm asleep i would have woken up by those and involuntarily smack on them like I would on mosquitoes...

 

i def would like to try it...

 

Sounds fun lol

 

sounds interesting,but how much will it nibble away??

 

that looks pretty fun, but im not really good with tickling

 

hah i should tell my friend who has corns on his feet go to a place like this

 

looks fun... but not sure if i'd do it myself... wat happens if they grow in there and instead of nibbling they bite ur toes? lol

 

btw! Are those fishes edible? I think it would taste like sardines

 

sounds cool and weird at the same time............

 

i would love to try it. i think it'll be interesting ... fishes nibbling away your dead skins. i imagine it wouldn't be anything more than like guppies swimming around your hand?

but i do agree, i'll be wearing a tight trunks ... don't want anything to swim up