Fish Spa

As an early Mothers' Day present, I fed my mum to the fishes this morning.

... No, seriously. And I'm proud to say she enjoyed it loads ;)

... Alright, I'll come clean. I wasn't kidding about using my mum to feed the fish, but it was just her feet the fishes were were feeding on. Along with my dad's and mine. =x


(That's my foot up there with the tiny fishes!)

Yep, I went for a fish spa (for the feet). ^^ It felt great having the fishes 'nibble' on your feet. Ticklish though it was, it was a very interesting feeling. There were small and big fishes in the area, and the feeling each type gives was extremely different.

When there's a swarm of small fish at your feet, you'll feel this tingly sensation that's all ticklish at the same time. When it's the big fish giving you the same treatment, though, the feeling is intensified, and you can feel exactly where it's 'cleaning'. The ticklish feeling doubles (or perhaps triples), and left me squealing in the beginning when I was not used to it.

There were many people walking around to see what our reactions were, and to ask and see if it was good. One lady asked if it was ticklish on my first trip there, and then left with a really scared look on her face when I told her it was. @_@

This round, a lady came to ask for our opinion, and after my dad enthusiastically 'promoted' it, the lady joined us, along with her family ^^;;

These fishes are sometimes called 'Doctorfish', and only consume the affected and dead areas of the skin, leaving the healthy skin to grow. So if you were afraid of the fishes biting your healthy skin off, fret not! They don't. ;)

I found a clearer picture of the fishes on wikipedia:



Cool, ain't it?

Fish Spas in other countries

I've heard of similar fish spas in other countries, and I've heard of those that allow you to submerge your entire body into the water =D It sounded way scary at first, especially since there are...well. Certain areas of your body you wouldn't want fishes nibbling on.

I heard that if you go in, though, you would be going in with a swimming costume. =D So as long as you don't wear a swimming costume that's extremely airy, you should be fine ;)

I don't know if I'll ever work up the courage of going into a full body fish spa though. @_@ I imagine it would be unbearably ticklish. And being an extremely sensitive person, that thought scares me.


Fish spas in Singapore

For the benefit of those in Singapore, I went for this particular fish spa at Qian Hu Fish Farm. Honestly, their website is not user friendly at all (I spent a while before realizing that the fish spa link only existed on the front page as a little image)

The first half an hour there is $10, and every subsequent minute's 30 cents. I brought my parents there today for an hour, so I spent SGD $19 on each person. This is, by far, the cheapest fish spa I know of in Singapore.

Part of the reason would likely be the fact that it is in a fish farm, and is extremely inaccessible (there are shuttle buses from the train station though), but if you want value for money, I feel that it really is a good place to go. Especially if you live somewhere in the north.

For people who don't like sitting in someplace that doesn't have air conditioning, you can always try the more expensive places such as Kenko (at the Singapore Flyer), or at Sentosa's Underwater World.

At Kenko (Singapore Flyer branch), the Fish Spa treatment costs $28 for 30 minutes. At Sentosa's Underwater World, though, the prices and treatment are a little different. They offer two packages, both of which include a 20min Fish Spa treatment. The first is $35, including a 20min foot reflexology, while the second package is $50, including a 20min foot reflexology and a 10min head and shoulder massage. This price does not include admission into Dolphin Lagoon and Underwater World though (so that would cost another $19.90).

As you can see, the prices are a LOT higher than the Qian Hu one. If you don't mind paying much more for a slightly better environment (The Qian Hu one isn't that bad, considering they play soothing music, and the place looks pretty good too), you could try the rest.

I'd give the Kenko one a miss, personally, since they don't seem to offer anything else. If I wanted to go for only the fish spa, Qian Hu would provide a much cheaper choice for a longer period of time.

I'm trying the Sentosa one end July though, when I'll be spending approximately 2-3 days there. =) It's expensive, I know, but since I'm going there to enjoy myself, I might as well go all the way, no? ;) I've been wondering if having 3 kinds of 'massages' at the same time would maximize the relaxing effect =P Heh. I'll know once I try it out.

Once I experience the Sentosa one, I will come back with another review =D Look out for it then!

That's all I have for you, for now. Till the next post..!



Signing off... ...
Happy Mothers' Day!