Which sex is my Blue Rams & their coloration..?

[Coozle]

I got a pair of Rams the other day from my LFS. The guy seemed unsure when picking out the female so I needed to confirm. (2 Photo's posted below) The First one is suppose to be the Male and the second a Female.

Also, at the LFS, the Blue Rams seemed veryyyy colorful, they were yellow and red at their head and much brighter. It's been 3 days they're in the aquarium, they haven't still gained their colors back. My water parameters seem good (0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite, 5 Nitrates, pH 7.8 and 26 C). The pH is high but at the LFS, they had the same water pH and they were colorful, also the guy said they were locally bred, so they're used to that pH since birth.

I feed them fish flakes, I need to get to get more variety of food, if you could suggest, not only for my Blue Rams but my Tetras too.

Does the lighting, gravel, background alter the Blue Rams coloration?

*Note, I'm still adding more plants, wood and decoration in the middle and on the sides.

 

[rich311k]

Looks like a pair to me. Give them time to settle in. Keep the water about 82F and be sure they have plenty of places to hide. They should color right up.

 

[roydooms]

The female fish is smaller than the male and have more pink pigmentation on her ventral region. If you look at the anterior region of the dorsal fin, you can see that her fin rays are less developed. It is also common for females to have a plumper body shape and more rounded edging of the tailfin. The back of the dorsal and anal fins have a more pointy edge in the male ram, and the tail fin is also more sharply edged. The male ram can be recognized on his V-shaped tail fin and the elongated second ray that is present in the dorsal fin.

The first pic is a male and the second one is a female.