As soon as customers put their feet into the warm  water, the ‘nibble fish’ swarm around and begin to gnaw. Their nibbling produces a not-unpleasant tickling sensation, especially when they get between the toes, writes Carsten Rehder

The “nibble fish” live up to their name. As soon as customers put their feet into the warm water they swarm around and begin to gnaw.
Garra rufa fish, originally from Turkey, are used in spas to remove dead skin. Their nibbling produces a not-unpleasant tickling sensation, especially when they get between the toes.
So-called fish spas such as this one in the north German town of Kiel are becoming increasingly common, though there are no exact numbers on how many salons use them.
“It’s definitely increasing,” say Philip-Valerius Bacher, who has been selling the fish online since 2011.
Peter Siegmann, whose company breeds Garra rufa as well as offers seminars on how to look after them and builds facilities for fish spas, is more cautious.
“I can’t say how many spas there are,” he says. There is neither a rapidly increasing demand, nor a drop-off, he says: “It will develop.”
He has sold a five-figure number of fish but will not give away any more details.
Inez Paulweber opened her Garra Rufa Lounge in Kiel in 2011. She says the nibble fish provide a sort of ecological foot treatment, with most of the demand coming from women.
She has between 50 and 60 medium-sized Garra rufa in six tanks, fitted out with filters. The bottoms are covered in gravel and there are spaces where the fish can hide away.
“The fish live in there,” says Paulweber, explaining that constantly swapping them between a tank in which they live and one in which they nibble on customers’ feet would be too stressful for the animals.
The 52-year-old takes the bigger fish — Garra rufa can grow up to 14 centimetres long — home with her. “I’ve got an old people’s home for
them there,” she says.
But the older fish can still be put to work, producing offspring for Paulweber’s salon.
Sometimes however the fish will spawn in the spa itself. Paulweber sees that as a sign that the fish are happy — otherwise they would not lay any eggs, she says.
Animal rights activists dislike the fish spas, arguing that they amount to torture and cause stress to the animals.
Their arguments have been accepted by many German towns and their official vets, leading to disputes between the local authorities and fish spa owners.
Animal welfare has often been used as grounds to forbid using the fish commercially for cosmetic purposes.
Courts have sometimes become involved, with one in the western city of Gelsenkirchen ruling last year that a spa could offer fish foot treatments and in doing so was not infringing animal welfare regulations.
Paulweber has not been taken to court; however, when she opened her spa she was visited by a vet.
“They looked at everything very carefully,” she says. She also had to gain a proof-of-competence certificate in freshwater fish-keeping and learn how to care for more than 200 types of fish.
After that she had no trouble gaining a licence to keep Garra rufa for commercial purposes — the framed certificate granting her permission hangs on the wall of her salon.
Customers’ feet are carefully cleaned before they are allowed to put them in the fish tanks — moisturisers and other cosmetics can be bad for the fish.
People who have contagious illnesses are asked to avoid fish spas for fear of passing them on. The tanks are also equipped with ultra violet sterilisers and powerful filters to kill germs.
In Kiel, customers with psoriasis and eczema are not allowed to use the tanks for reasons of hygiene, although the fish are often said to provide relief for the skin conditions.
Fish therapy is also offered in some parts of Germany, though mostly by non-medical practitioners.
Doctors are sceptical of these treatments. “We don’t know of any medical practitioners offering these procedures,” said Ralf Blumenthal, spokesman for the German Society of Dermatologists.
There have been no scientific evaluations of fish therapy, he added.
At best it is possible the fish could help exfoliate skin, and perhaps, also give patients a “nice feeling,” but they in no way represent a long-term treatment, he said. — DPA