Garra rufa fish

"We eat dead skin cells as food. We don't have teeth so our scratching doesn't hurt ánd it's good for your skin!"

Discover in real life
Garra rufa fishGarra rufa

  • Food

    plankton, dead skin cells, small plants

  • Lifetime

    5 years on average

  • Weight

    0.15 grams

  • Number of eggs

    15 eggs

  • Grow time

    1 to 2 days

  • IUCN Status

    safe

  • EEP?

    no

  • 5

    years, that's how old I get on average

  • 15

    grams, that's how light I am!

    • Siblings

    Count how many siblings I have in Eindhoven Zoo? Very clever if you can do that! I don't even know...

    Hot water

    I am a kind of carp. In nature, we live in rivers in Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq, with water from hot springs. We live near the bottom, where we nibble plankton from the stones. Around the city of Kangal in Turkey, many people bathe in the warm river water. As a result, the plankton goes away more and more.

    Fish spa

    But we discovered dead human skin cells as food! So people then discovered that our nibbling is good for the skin. We have no teeth so nibbling doesn't hurt. Now we are kept worldwide in beauty centers where people get health treatments with nibbling fish.

    Want to know more about IUCN status or the EEP? Click here.