StrangerInLostUniverse
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Greetings and salutations, my fellow fishy folk friends.......
I haven't been able to receive much feedback on another website I joined as I don't think many other people keep Garra Rufa fish.
I just wanted to take a few minutes here to briefly share my story of how I came to fall in love with these fish.
A few weeks ago I visited a fish pedicure spa. It was something I had been wanting to try for a while, but had kept putting it off because of the price. The first time in my life I had ever heard of garra rufa fish was on an episode of "fortean tv" I saw any years ago when I was still a teenager. I was fascinated, and at the time I also had psoriasis. I really wanted to go to Turkey and experience this for myself (I don't think fish pedicure spas had been set up much yet elsewhere). However, this wasn't possible for me at the time.
To be honest, I had mixed feelings about whether it was right or not to use fish in fish pedicures. I feel that ideally, in an absolutely Utopian world, no creature at all would be kept in captivity; all would be wild and free, or live alongside humans freely (many domestic cats live with people but are free to come and go as they please via their catflap). So perhaps it is hypocritical of me to actually keep these fish as pets at all or to have visited a spa. But I just couldn't resist, and I justify keeping them by telling myself that they were in captivity already before they came to me. (?)
There are definitely welfare issues to consider, and it would be much better if people experienced garra rufa fish skin treatment with the fish kept in better conditions.....such as a huge pool that people could carefully bathe in, without harming the fish. People who would work in such a place should then be extremely strict that anyone who went for a treatment must ensure that their skin was free from lotions and anything else that may harm the fish.
As far as the idea that fish need to be starved to perform......I can say from experience that this is not true, although their may be some truth in it as some places may practice this to make the fish perform a bit better. Garra Rufa fish, studies have shown, do not actually digest skin properly (I need to get more info on this- the director of a fish pedicure company told me this). They do need to be fed a good wholesome fish food, and there is a wide range of things that garra will eat. (The main staple of garra rufa in the wild are various types of algae- I read an article on a study of their diets). They are very active fish and look constantly hungry; however overfeeding any fish is very dangerous due to the deadly ammonia which I have been recently learning about. Anyway, I can tell you that from experience, even when they are fed plenty daily, they will still flock to your hand whenever it goes into the tank etc.
When I experienced having my feet treated by these little "Dr Fish" for the first time.....the first few seconds were scarey and strange.....having all these tiny little creatures rush to your feet rather than swim away......but after that....it was......WOW. One of the most amazing experiences I'd ever had.
After this day, I decided to do a little browsing online, just out of curiousity, to see if it was possible at all to buy these fish somewhere. I had been thinking about getting a pet of some sort, however my landlady wasn't keen on the idea as she'd had trouble with previous tenants keeping pets. However, keepng fish would be different and acceptable. Anyway, I found some garra rufa spa systems on ebay, and I decided to bid on one, and won! The main challenge was getting the thing collected, but luckily I found a courier through a website, where couriers will often collect things even if the seller can't pack.
The tank came also with 5 fish. When I first got it, I felt a bit intimidated by it....I didn't understand how everything in the back worked, but now it is all clear. I had been doing lots of research on caring for garra rufa fish, however there was much I had yet to learn.....about cycling tanks, overstocking fish etc. Now I know all this, I hope that my fish are going to be ok, even though I am somewhat overstocked by aquatic expert recommendations.
I got 15 more garra rufa fish from a supplier I found. (None of these or the other 5 fish have died- all have survived so far and seem ok).
I was happy with my fish and wanted to get some more for my other tank (the spa thing is a twin tank system).
Feeling curious, I emailed a few websites to make enquiries, to try and find a reputable supplier that promised their garra rufa were the original Turkey breed (although I was happy with the ones I had, I heard there were many similar breeds of fish out there.....I was curious).
I managed to find one that responded to my enquiry, and suggested I buy some locally, and gave me another email to contact. Low and behold......the very fish spa place I had visited the other week, which had started it all off.....was closing down....the very next day! I had found out JUST in time. So the very next day I walked down there, with my husband (for carrying, hehe) and bought all the fish from the very tank I had used! I knew I wouldn't get a chance to get the fish at such a good price again....the carriage alone of fish is a big expense).
I thought that there were about 30 or more fish (they were so fast they were too difficult to count). However I now realize that I must have had about 70. I counted 46 on a photo I took recently, after I had given 25 of them away to someone to allow the tank I have to be less crowded.
In the first tank I put fish in, there are 21 fish.
I had a problem with the ammonia levels getting high and I lost 5 of the fish in total from the pedicure place as a result of this. I am using Stress Zyme and ammo lock to help this at the moment. I change about 12% of the water daily as recommended by the company director who I met the day I bought the fish....(who seemed reasonably ethical and quite knowledgeable).
I hope that this will get better as the filter matures....I now realize that although this was a second hand tank, the other tank without fish in had been left dry overnight......and I had washed one of the sponges and some of the ceramic media.....something I realize I should not have done!
I want the fish to be as healthy as possible and to live as long as they can physically. I don't intend to start a business out of these fish but keep them as pets. I am not sure if I should try to rehome more of the fish or keep them. If anymore die because of the ammonia weakening them when it did, I will end up with less anyway. I don't know if the regular water changes will enable me to keep this many healthily.
I have added some substrate to the tank (the lady I met said it wouldn't be as clean with substrate, but others have disagreed with this and said the fish would be happier with it, so I put the substrate I had before back in again). I can also see the fish better with it. I bought a cheap substrate cleaner which isn't very well made. I put some driftwood in which I hope isn't taking up much room. I have added some pebbles I acquired recently at a trip to the beach, which the fish really seem to like (they completely ignorred the plastic rocks I had in, which I have now removed as they looked tacky). I bought a few Miramo Balls, "Moss Balls" which are really cute. At first the fish had a feeding frenzy over them, but I guess as they are quite a tough plant, they have left them alone now. I have some Java Fern and Java Moss on its way.
I haven't been able to receive much feedback on another website I joined as I don't think many other people keep Garra Rufa fish.
I just wanted to take a few minutes here to briefly share my story of how I came to fall in love with these fish.
A few weeks ago I visited a fish pedicure spa. It was something I had been wanting to try for a while, but had kept putting it off because of the price. The first time in my life I had ever heard of garra rufa fish was on an episode of "fortean tv" I saw any years ago when I was still a teenager. I was fascinated, and at the time I also had psoriasis. I really wanted to go to Turkey and experience this for myself (I don't think fish pedicure spas had been set up much yet elsewhere). However, this wasn't possible for me at the time.
To be honest, I had mixed feelings about whether it was right or not to use fish in fish pedicures. I feel that ideally, in an absolutely Utopian world, no creature at all would be kept in captivity; all would be wild and free, or live alongside humans freely (many domestic cats live with people but are free to come and go as they please via their catflap). So perhaps it is hypocritical of me to actually keep these fish as pets at all or to have visited a spa. But I just couldn't resist, and I justify keeping them by telling myself that they were in captivity already before they came to me. (?)
There are definitely welfare issues to consider, and it would be much better if people experienced garra rufa fish skin treatment with the fish kept in better conditions.....such as a huge pool that people could carefully bathe in, without harming the fish. People who would work in such a place should then be extremely strict that anyone who went for a treatment must ensure that their skin was free from lotions and anything else that may harm the fish.
As far as the idea that fish need to be starved to perform......I can say from experience that this is not true, although their may be some truth in it as some places may practice this to make the fish perform a bit better. Garra Rufa fish, studies have shown, do not actually digest skin properly (I need to get more info on this- the director of a fish pedicure company told me this). They do need to be fed a good wholesome fish food, and there is a wide range of things that garra will eat. (The main staple of garra rufa in the wild are various types of algae- I read an article on a study of their diets). They are very active fish and look constantly hungry; however overfeeding any fish is very dangerous due to the deadly ammonia which I have been recently learning about. Anyway, I can tell you that from experience, even when they are fed plenty daily, they will still flock to your hand whenever it goes into the tank etc.
When I experienced having my feet treated by these little "Dr Fish" for the first time.....the first few seconds were scarey and strange.....having all these tiny little creatures rush to your feet rather than swim away......but after that....it was......WOW. One of the most amazing experiences I'd ever had.
After this day, I decided to do a little browsing online, just out of curiousity, to see if it was possible at all to buy these fish somewhere. I had been thinking about getting a pet of some sort, however my landlady wasn't keen on the idea as she'd had trouble with previous tenants keeping pets. However, keepng fish would be different and acceptable. Anyway, I found some garra rufa spa systems on ebay, and I decided to bid on one, and won! The main challenge was getting the thing collected, but luckily I found a courier through a website, where couriers will often collect things even if the seller can't pack.
The tank came also with 5 fish. When I first got it, I felt a bit intimidated by it....I didn't understand how everything in the back worked, but now it is all clear. I had been doing lots of research on caring for garra rufa fish, however there was much I had yet to learn.....about cycling tanks, overstocking fish etc. Now I know all this, I hope that my fish are going to be ok, even though I am somewhat overstocked by aquatic expert recommendations.
I got 15 more garra rufa fish from a supplier I found. (None of these or the other 5 fish have died- all have survived so far and seem ok).
I was happy with my fish and wanted to get some more for my other tank (the spa thing is a twin tank system).
Feeling curious, I emailed a few websites to make enquiries, to try and find a reputable supplier that promised their garra rufa were the original Turkey breed (although I was happy with the ones I had, I heard there were many similar breeds of fish out there.....I was curious).
I managed to find one that responded to my enquiry, and suggested I buy some locally, and gave me another email to contact. Low and behold......the very fish spa place I had visited the other week, which had started it all off.....was closing down....the very next day! I had found out JUST in time. So the very next day I walked down there, with my husband (for carrying, hehe) and bought all the fish from the very tank I had used! I knew I wouldn't get a chance to get the fish at such a good price again....the carriage alone of fish is a big expense).
I thought that there were about 30 or more fish (they were so fast they were too difficult to count). However I now realize that I must have had about 70. I counted 46 on a photo I took recently, after I had given 25 of them away to someone to allow the tank I have to be less crowded.
In the first tank I put fish in, there are 21 fish.
I had a problem with the ammonia levels getting high and I lost 5 of the fish in total from the pedicure place as a result of this. I am using Stress Zyme and ammo lock to help this at the moment. I change about 12% of the water daily as recommended by the company director who I met the day I bought the fish....(who seemed reasonably ethical and quite knowledgeable).
I hope that this will get better as the filter matures....I now realize that although this was a second hand tank, the other tank without fish in had been left dry overnight......and I had washed one of the sponges and some of the ceramic media.....something I realize I should not have done!
I want the fish to be as healthy as possible and to live as long as they can physically. I don't intend to start a business out of these fish but keep them as pets. I am not sure if I should try to rehome more of the fish or keep them. If anymore die because of the ammonia weakening them when it did, I will end up with less anyway. I don't know if the regular water changes will enable me to keep this many healthily.
I have added some substrate to the tank (the lady I met said it wouldn't be as clean with substrate, but others have disagreed with this and said the fish would be happier with it, so I put the substrate I had before back in again). I can also see the fish better with it. I bought a cheap substrate cleaner which isn't very well made. I put some driftwood in which I hope isn't taking up much room. I have added some pebbles I acquired recently at a trip to the beach, which the fish really seem to like (they completely ignorred the plastic rocks I had in, which I have now removed as they looked tacky). I bought a few Miramo Balls, "Moss Balls" which are really cute. At first the fish had a feeding frenzy over them, but I guess as they are quite a tough plant, they have left them alone now. I have some Java Fern and Java Moss on its way.
