Being Eaten Alive: The Fish Spa

Fish Spa manager on Thaniva Road in Bangkok

For my last several trips there's been a new tourist stop that has intrigued me, even if it also slightly gave me the creeps at the same time, and that's what's known as the fish spa. By "new" I mean new to me; the general idea's been around for a long time.

After all, maggots have been used to clean wounds for hundreds of years, but we won't use that word again today to protect the squeamish. Just as disinfected - let's say fly larvae - are used today as biotherapy to clean tissue on burns and assorted healing injuries, very small fish known as Doctor Fish (Garra rufa, also known as nibble fish, doctorfishen and kangal fish) from the Central and Northern areas of the Middle East are in use in many countries as treatment for psoriasis and other skin conditions. They feed on the dead skin cells someone would normally exfoliate with a scrubber or porous stone while doing your pedicure, but this is a more thorough (and interesting way) to get the job done.

A farang being exfoliated by doctor fish

The last time I was in Thailand there were independent stands or shops both on Thaniva Road (that I've come to call Soi Yipun) in Bangkok and at the newish Central Festival Mall in Pattaya. I'm sure there are many other places you could try this, if you wanted to, but these are two I've noticed recently.

It was my intent to offer the sponsored students this unusual treat while we were on an outing to CFM one afternoon and let them be the testers for me, but time didn't allow for it so I tried it myself my last night in Bangkok this past March.

For 150 baht (about $5USD today) you have the opportunity to sit on a padded bench seat, put your feet into a tank of these fish and allow them to flutter around the surface of your feet, nibbling away for 15 minutes. A 30 minute session is Bt250 (about $8.35US).

The sensation is one of someone very lightly scratching at your skin with the pointed end of a pin; not at all painful, but not something I'd care to have done on my belly, for example. It was... well, a little creepy, that's the best way I can describe it.

To the left above you can see the fish at work, some determined enough to even crawl their way above the water line in the tank in an attempt to get a little more to eat. Reminds me of a few folks I've seen at buffets!

I've taken the detail from the photo above and enlarged it (below) so you can better see the fish's mouth spread open into an "O", while the tiny teeth scrape away at the outer surface of the skin. The process doesn't break the skin's surface, and there are no visible signs on your skin afterwards, but your feet are as smooth as a baby's feet in just a few minutes. It's quite surprising.

There probably are health concerns to consider, of course: they can't sterilize the water chemically because that would kill the fish, and you can be sure that your feet aren't the first that have been into the tank that day, at the very least. The site in Bangkok has a website (http://siamfishspa.com/) that makes no mention about that that I could see, naturally - but the "treatment" has been outlawed in some U.S. states and Canadian provinces. I had no open wounds or sores at the time so I didn't worry about it, and still have all ten toes.

A couple of young girls who were selling flowers nearby stopped in while we were being "eaten alive" at the stall and stuck their hands into the tanks, giggling and squealing back and forth to each other as the skin on their fingers was nibbled.

Overall it was an interesting touristy experience, but I'd probably rather have a pedicure and scrub, given the choice next time.