is there a cleaning fish suitable for my tank?

[thisisyesterday]

it's quite a small tank, 24 litres, so I can't have a pleco (have just googled!)

but is there a fish that likes to clean, but will fit ok in a small tank?

we have a couple of snails already which must have come in on one of the plants

No. There is no such thing as a 'cleaning fish'. Shops will tell you there is to make another sale but the only thing that cleans the tank is you

24 litres is very small, what have you got in there? It could be that your tank is overstocked and that could be causing algae and excess poop and other such lovely things.

thanks!
at the moment we just have 2 guppys

the tank isn't dirty (yet!) but we just figured a little bottom dweller may help keep it nice

Anything alive that you add to the tank will create more mess than it will take away. Even algae eaters like otos will poop and give you more work.

At 24 litres your tank isn't really big enough to support any bottom dwellers. The smaller ones like otos and corys need to be in a shoal of at least 6 so need a bigger tank and the solitary ones like plecs grow pretty big. You can't really fit much into a 24 litre tank aside from a couple of guppies and they really ought to be in a shoal as well.

So I would leave it, don't be tempted by anything the shop tries to sell you, especially not 'golden algae eaters' which grow to 10 inches long and become really aggressive as they get older.

ahh thanks, i guess we;ll maybe upgrade the taank at some point

it was bought by a very well-meaning friend as a christmas present for the boys after I'd mentioned we were thinking of getting one.

it is very small though

That was nice of your friend It's a bit of minefield though, the laws on animal welfare are vague, pet shop staff are not trained so manufacturers can sell anything they like even if it's completely unsuitable. So many people are unknowingly conned and then give up keeping fish because they have so many problems with crappy advice from sales people and crappy equipment from manufacturers that are after a fast buck

Sorry, I went off on a tangent

it was lovely of her tbh, and the children are happy with their 2 fish and few snails (more keep on appearing! eek)

it's just me and dp who want something more exciting lol, but didn't want to just jump in and buy all sorts, and thank goodness i didn't!

interestingly when we bought the guppies they just sold them to us, asked no questions re tank or other fish or anything!