Wild Caught Garra Rufa / Doctor Fish 4 - 5cm x 100

Our Garra Ruffa Doctor Fish are ideal for foot spa's that want to give thier clients the best spa experience possible.

We have the cheapest priced Garra Rufa Doctor fish in the UK, and remember our prices include VAT.

We carry over 5000 Garra Rufa fish in stock, so we can handle the extremes of demand and we always fulfil our orders.

Doctor fish is the name given to Garra rufa fish.

Other nicknames include nibble fish, kangal fish and doctor fish. In non-medical contexts the Garra rufa is commonly called the reddish log sucker.

They live and breed in the outdoor pools of some Turkish spas, where they feed on the skin of patients with psoriasis.

The fish are much like combfishes in that they only consume the affected and dead areas of the skin, leaving the healthy skin to grow.

Some patients have experienced complete cure of psoriasis after repeated treatments.

Garra rufa originate from the river basins of the Northern and Central Middle East, mainly in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran.

Garra rufa can be kept in an aquarium at home; while not strictly a "beginner's fish", it is quite hardy.

Facts about Garra Rufa...

Originated from the Middle East in rivers & springs.

Release enzymatic secretions and Dithranol. A component of dermatological creams for skin to regenerate faster.

Nibbles on dead skin cells, similar to exfoliation, the natural way.

Lifespan of 6 years.

Can grow up to 7cm in length.

Continues nibbling even when they are full.

Assist in treatment of skin conditions such as psoriasis & eczema.

Instruction on how to best care for your Garra Rufa fish:
 
Introduction
Make sure that the garra rufa fish are introduced to your spa correctly
 
1. Float fish bags in spa for 10mins, do not open.
 
2. Tip contents of bag into a clean bucket & tip out majority of water. leaving the fish and out 10-12cm water.
 
3. Using pipe supplied, syphon water from spa into bucket.
 
4. Once bucket is 3/4 full, using a net catch the fish and release them into the spa.
 
5. Discard water into drain or sink.
 
Settling in.
For the first few hours the fish will be a little quiet, do not feed them for the first day, start on day 2, you can use a good quality flake food of agae wafers, we recomend aquarian algae wafers, if using flake do not over feed.
 
Water Conditions
This is so important.
 
Ph - keep the Ph level below 7.0 for at least the first 6 weeks, this will convert the amonia that the fish produce (extremley harmfull) into amonium (less harmfull)
 
Nitrite - this will develop once the amonia has peaked, this to is extremley toxic to fish, to help control this use polfilters (chemically absorbing pads) in your filter.
 
Water Testing
Make sure that you are testing for the above water parameters, best to do this every coupls of days so you get a feel for what is going on in the spa water.
 
Overstocking
Do not overstock your spa, adding to many fish to soon, can be very unwise. 
 
 Tempreture - the fish seem to be best at aound 30c - 31c.
 
Important - add a good souce of bacteria to your spa, we recommend, K1 filter media, that we sell directly out of our systems. These will have cultures of good bacteria on them, this will seed the filter and speed up the maturation process.
 
Maintenace
It is essential that you carry out regular maintence on your spa, especially whilst its new:
 
Every two days change 20% of the spa water.
 
Every 4 days clean the filter media in water that has come from the spa, do not clean filter media in tap, you will kill the benficial bacteria that you are trying to grow.
 
Feeding
Feed once a day, for the first 6 weeks, with a quality food, we recommend Aquarian Algae Wafers, they seem to like these best, do not overfeed though, as this will add to the pollution.
 
Stress
You and the fish will find this process very stressfull if you dont get things right,  the pollution in the water will rocket, the fish will begin to die off, you will be loosing money, may not be able to use the spa's.
 
We are here to help, call us if you need help or assistance.
 
www.aquaticstore.com
0121 373 1100
© Neil Owen www.aquaticstore.com 2011

Garra Rufa supplied directly from aquatic-store.co.uk

In the unlikely event of any dead fish on delivery your claim must be supported by a photograph of the dead fish in the original unopened bags and reported on the day of arrival. We do not accept any claims once the fish have been released into the spa.