# Are those fish that nibble at your feet hygienic? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 19, 2014, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-fish-that-nibble-at-your-feet-hygienic/698917 "2014-09-19T09:28:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_York](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f6c823/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_York](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_York)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2014, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-fish-that-nibble-at-your-feet-hygienic/698917/1 "2014-09-19T09:28:39Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2014, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-fish-that-nibble-at-your-feet-hygienic/698917/2 "2014-09-19T09:57:38Z")
You might catch a fish… ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2014, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-fish-that-nibble-at-your-feet-hygienic/698917/3 "2014-09-19T10:16:22Z")
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](http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20140714084352/http://www.hpa.org.uk/webc/HPAwebFile/HPAweb_C/1317131045549) (may not be available outside the UK) ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2014, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-fish-that-nibble-at-your-feet-hygienic/698917/4 "2014-09-19T11:37:38Z")
In October 2011 the Daily Mail published this: > [@](#): > > Fish foot spa pedicures could spread diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C, health experts have warned. > The government’s Health Protection Agency said those with diabetes, psoriasis or a weak immune system are particularly vulnerable and should not take part in the beauty craze at all. > In new guidance to be published today, they said the risk of infection for users of the increasingly popular treatment, in which dozens of tiny fish nibble dead skin from customers’ feet, is ‘low but could not be completely excluded’. > > Read more: [Fish pedicures and foot spas could spread HIV and hepatitis C | Daily Mail Online](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2050342/Fish-pedicures-foot-spas-spread-HIV-hepatitis-C.html#ixzz3DlD9Iux3) 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. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2014, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-fish-that-nibble-at-your-feet-hygienic/698917/5 "2014-09-19T13:26:43Z")
Goldfish shoals nipping at my toes, fun fun fun. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2014, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-fish-that-nibble-at-your-feet-hygienic/698917/6 "2014-09-19T13:37:41Z")
> [@Duke\_of\_York](#): > > I was in Phuket a couple of years ago and had a session. “Phuket” – named after what’s commonly heard when people are offered the opportunity to have carnivorous fish eat their body parts. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_York](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f6c823/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_York](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_York)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2014, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-fish-that-nibble-at-your-feet-hygienic/698917/7 "2014-09-19T14:23:29Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2014, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-fish-that-nibble-at-your-feet-hygienic/698917/8 "2014-09-19T14:35:03Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > “Phuket” – named after what’s commonly heard when people are offered the opportunity to have carnivorous fish eat their body parts. 😛 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. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2014, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-fish-that-nibble-at-your-feet-hygienic/698917/9 "2014-09-19T15:29:23Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2014, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-fish-that-nibble-at-your-feet-hygienic/698917/10 "2014-09-19T16:43:02Z")
Surely it depends on whether or not they brush their teeth. ---
**Author:** ![zoltar7](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b38774/32.png) [@zoltar7](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoltar7)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2014, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-fish-that-nibble-at-your-feet-hygienic/698917/11 "2014-09-19T17:10:43Z")
Banned in Washington state: [http://seattletimes.com/html/othersports/2008224235\_fish03m0.html](http://seattletimes.com/html/othersports/2008224235_fish03m0.html) ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2014, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-fish-that-nibble-at-your-feet-hygienic/698917/12 "2014-09-21T02:23:44Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2014, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-fish-that-nibble-at-your-feet-hygienic/698917/13 "2014-09-22T00:43:28Z")
**Are those fish that nibble at your feet hygienic?** For some reason I’m hearing Karen Carpenter sing this line. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2014, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-fish-that-nibble-at-your-feet-hygienic/698917/14 "2014-09-22T03:37:32Z")
_Why do fish suddenly appear When my toes hover near? I am meat, they long to eat and to chew._ ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2014, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-fish-that-nibble-at-your-feet-hygienic/698917/15 "2014-09-22T03:53:29Z")
> [@susan](#): > > _Why do fish suddenly appear > When my toes hover near? > I am meat, they long to eat > and to chew._ Close to you. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2014, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-fish-that-nibble-at-your-feet-hygienic/698917/16 "2014-09-22T04:11:52Z")
It was too hard to rhyme “hygienic” in a way that also scanned nicely. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2014, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-fish-that-nibble-at-your-feet-hygienic/698917/17 "2014-09-22T06:38:10Z")
> [@susan](#): > > _Why do fish suddenly appear > When my toes hover near? > I am meat, they long to eat > and to chew._ Bravo, bravo! Encore!