Harley question

[Crazysps]

I recently bought two harlequin shrimp that were paired up at my LFS and have remained paired up after their acclimation into my tank. They have been feeding like crazy on the tiny sea stars in my tank. I wanted to figure out which was male and which was female, so i did some research and I found that the females have blue legs and are a little larger and the males conversly are smaller and have pink legs. I checked the larger shimp it had blue legs, and then noticed that the smaller shrimp had blue legs as well. So i have finally gotten to my question: Is there any other way to tell the sex without an exam? Also would two of the same sex shrimps pair up together?

Any answers would be helpful thank you

 

[AJ31655]

I have tried a few methods. Some people say that the color of the abdominal plates will tell you, male's being white or clear and females having pink or purple, and the leg thing. Males are also supposed to have narrower hips.....both of my shrimp have all of these, and thier "hips" look the same to me, and the breed pretty regularly. The only thing I notice is that the female is bigger, she carries the eggs. As far as tow of the same sex pairing up, I don't think they will. The ones we get in almost always are on opposite sides of the tank at all times except for the two I got, and they have spawned. So I think same sex shrimp will avoid eachother, but i havn't ever seen them fight.