Sexing Electric Blue Rams/Green Algae 'Problem'

[Neutral_Water]

Hey it's been a while since I posted everything's been going smoothly and my tank has changed quite a far bit. Here's a pic of it currently, I recently got my rams and have been feeding them (quite spoilty : P) so they have grown a fair bit, I'm wondering now if you guys are able to tell me if they are old enough to sex? Recently my plants have been growing super well, I have used some ozone from an ozone generator which I dose for around 10 mins a day (I don't plan on going longer) I assume the ozone is converting all the stuff floating around in the water into food for my plants. I have also quit doing gravel vacs and water changes every two days and allowed some waste to build up for the plants to eat, but this has faced me with a problem... is this algae in the back of my tank hazardous? It used to be brown algae before I begun works on my tank but I removed all of it and it grew into a green variety, cause I would like it to grow at the back wall of my aquarium as some sort of natural background. I want to clarify if it isn't the Blue-Green bacteria type? If it's safe I would love to keep it. Most importantly tho are the sexing of these rams! Thanks all info/criticism is welcome : )

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[Tifftastic]

That looks like standard green algae. Blue-green algae is quite teal, a literal blue-green, and looks a bit like slime. You can often see bubbles on it as well. A good rule is if you see your fish eating it, its safe. I'm rubbish at sexing rams, so hopefully someone who is good at it will pop in.

I like the look of the tank! It looks like it could be the bottom of a slow pool on the Amazon =]

 

[fishorama]

Well, it's seems like your rams are still quite young (small). But if I had to guess, they both look female (but so do almost all young cichlids). I'm basing that on the short dorsal (top fin) & anal (bottom fin). Neither extends past the caudal peduncle (fleshy part before the tail).

The fish 3rd from last pic "might" be a male...but like I said, they look young. Give them some time (months) & watch behaviors. There's sometimes aggression between same sex fish, more with 2 males...to the point that 1 takes the dominant (usually male) role & may influence color too, but fins don't often lie. Females tend to mature earlier than males, so if the smaller seems to be more aggressive that can be a hint too.

You might want to add some more wood or rocks, so no matter their genders, they can get away from each other.

I'm with Tiff on the algae, no big deal, not cyano.

 

[Vincenia]

One way to sex rams is by the second spike in the dorsal fin. If it’s even with the other spikes the ram is female, if it’s longer/taller then the other spikes the ram is male. Females do have a slightly pinkish belly, while males don’t. Wait a few more months, they are still a bit to young to sex, like tiff and fishorama had stated.