doctor fish

This article is about the freshwater fish used for treatment of skin diseases, notably in Kangal district, Turkey. See the article on the tench Tinca tinca for the species sometimes called the "doctor fish" in the UK. For the marine fishes otherwise known as surgeonfishes or tangs, see Acanthuridae.

Doctor fish
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Actinopterygii Order: Cypriniformes Family: Cyprinidae Genus: Garra Species: G. rufa
Binomial name
Garra rufa Heckel, 1846

The term doctor fish is the name given to two species of fish (Garra rufa, discussed here, and Cyprinion macrostomus). They live and breed in outdoor pools of some Turkish spas, where they feed on the skin of patients with psoriasis. The fish are like combfishes in that they only consume the affected and dead areas of the skin, leaving the healthy skin to grow, with the outdoor location of the treatment bringing beneficial effects. The spas are not meant as a treatment option, only as a temporary cure for symptoms, and patients usually revisit the spas every few months. Some patients have experienced complete cure of psoriasis after repeated treatments, but due to the unpredictable nature of the disease, which is strongly influenced by endogenous factors, this may simply be regression towards the mean.

The nicknames nibble fish, kangal fish, and doctorfishen are commonly applied to both species of doctor fish. Outside the medical context, Garra rufa is called reddish log sucker.

The species occurs in the river basins of the Northern and Central Middle East, mainly in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. It is legally protected from commercial exploitation in Turkey due to concerns of overharvesting for export. Garra rufa can be kept in an aquarium at home; while not strictly a "beginner's fish", it is quite hardy. For treatment of skin diseases, aquarium specimens are not well suited as the skin-feeding behavior fully manifests only under conditions where the food supply is somewhat scarce and unpredictable.

In 2006, a Doctor Fish spa resort opened in Hakone, Japan and centar AlterMedica in Umag, Croatia. These fish are used to clean the feet of the bathers at the spa. There are also spas in resorts in China, such as Hainan (Cyprinion macrostomus, known locally as Chinchin), and South Korea where there are a chain of cafes called Doctor Fish Cafe.

References

• Garra rufa (TSN 689117). Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Accessed on 30 January 2006.
• "Garra rufa". FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. 10 2005 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2005.

External links

• BBC Video

• Reuters - Turkish "doctor fish" nibble at Japanese market

• - Croatian BBC Video

• Croatian Garra Rufa center

• - Doctor Fish Cafe website (in Korean)

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