If you’ve ever been to Thailand or similar countries you will find plenty of places that have fish tanks where you place your feet and let the fish eat the dead skin.
I was in Phuket a couple of years ago and had a session. We are going there around Christmas and my wife is saying I could catch something. Is she correct?
You might catch a fish…
Alternately you might like to take a look at this set of guidelines.
Although these guidelines seem a little daunting, the overall risk is described as ‘minimal’.
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20140714084352/http://www.hpa.org.uk/webc/HPAwebFile/HPAweb_C/1317131045549
(may not be available outside the UK)
In October 2011 the Daily Mail published this:
The following week, the one in my town centre had gone, and I haven’t seen one since. This is in spite of the final paragraph in the report: "A spokeswoman for HIV charity the Terrence Higgins Trust said: ‘The risk of picking up infections is minimal but people must be careful where they choose to go." He doesn’t say how you can “be careful” though.
Please note that this paper is one of the more sensationalist ones.
Goldfish shoals nipping at my toes, fun fun fun. 
“Phuket” – named after what’s commonly heard when people are offered the opportunity to have carnivorous fish eat their body parts. 
After reading these posts I’m going to give it a miss. If it’s dodgy in the UK then imagine what it’s like in Thailand.
Nitpick: they’re not carnivorous; in the wild they eat algae and stuff on rocks and they eat hardened skin because they think it’s algae-bearing rock.
Especially if you have algae growing on your hardened skin. :eek:
I suspect the hygene risks are not overwhelming but nonetheless still real.
Surely it depends on whether or not they brush their teeth.
Banned in Washington state: http://seattletimes.com/html/othersports/2008224235_fish03m0.html
Those fish spas are all the rage in Thailand now and seem harmless enough, although neither I nor the wife has tried it. I can tell you that one of the small museums near the Bridge over the River Kwai details the Allied prisoners having soaked in the river to use fish there in a similar manner to help clean infected sores.
Are those fish that nibble at your feet hygienic?
For some reason I’m hearing Karen Carpenter sing this line.
Why do fish suddenly appear
When my toes hover near?
I am meat, they long to eat
and to chew.
Close to you.
It was too hard to rhyme “hygienic” in a way that also scanned nicely.
Bravo, bravo! Encore!