At some spas around the world, customers can get an unusual beauty treatment—one in which hungry, tiny fish munch all the dead skin off their feet. The fish giving this unconventional pedicure are a species called Garra rufa. Dangling your feet in a tank filled with flesh-eating fish might make you squirm. But customers claim the hungry creatures smooth out rough, calloused skin.
Fish pedicures have been popular in some regions around the world for decades, but they’re extremely controversial. That’s because the practice isn’t hygienic and can pose a risk of infection. “You’re likely sticking your foot in a container of warm water that has been reused by many people and is growing all sorts of bacteria,” says Sherry Yu. She’s a dermatologist—a doctor who treats skin disorders—at Optima Dermatology in Ohio. Because of this risk of infection, the cosmetic treatment has been banned in several U.S. states, Mexico, Canada, and parts of Europe.
Garra rufa fish naturally live in freshwater lakes and rivers in the Middle East and Western Asia. As omnivores, they eat both plants and animals. Typically, they feed on tiny organisms called plankton. But when the fish are kept in a tank and deprived of food they normally eat, they will turn to other sources of nutrition—like dead skin from people’s feet.
While getting a fish pedicure might seem like a quirky spa experience, this practice raises serious human health and animal welfare concerns, says Yu.