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http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/homestyle/07/21/fish.pedicure.ap/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

Ah well...

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Some people have too much money to spend!


That can't be good for the fish


^_^

Saw pictures of a friend doing that in Hong Kong, it looked.... interesting.

I wonder if feet are particularly tasty or if they withhold food? Must be hard to keep the water parameters within range with a bundle of acidic sweaty feet plopping in and out.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

On a side note the fish they use are highly expensive to buy in asia due to their "healing" properties.

yeah... vaguely remember watching some show several years ago that did a segment on "skin-eating" fish, don't remember the species mentioned, it was some sort of last-ditch "medical treatment" for various skin conditions ie. psoriasis and eczema, if I recall, the results varied ....


eewwwww....toejam = fishfood

J.

The use of Garra rufa isn't anything new, though I suppose it's use in a westernized country might be...?

The odd thing is that the image doesn't really look like Garra rufa, which is a rather algae-eater-like fish. I wish the pic were larger and clearer so I could get a good idea of what fish they are actually using. According to Wikipedia, there are two fish known as doctor fish, Garra rufa and Cyprinion macrostomus. It might be the latter they are using, rather than Garra rufa like said in the article.

Again, according to Wikipedia, food has to be scarce for skin-eating behavior to occur. You could technically do it on more than just feet. I'm sure a manicure wouldn't be out of the question either.

I imagine they would clean the feet a little before putting them with the fish. The salon people probably don't want the fish dying any more than we would.

Now if you want something really creepy look up maggot therapy.

--------------------------------------------
The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

You'd probably want a few batches of fish so you could 'rotate the paddocks' a bit, and feed up two lots while you worked the 3rd, and so on.

I'd be very interested to know how they worked the setup, how much water and what they used to balance out the skin aspect etc. It is one of those things that is so different that we could probably stand to learn a few things from how the housekeeping problems are overcome. Does anyone have any idea on how that side of it works?

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett