Did you know fantastic help is an anagram of Planet Catfish? This forum is for those of you with pictures of your catfish who are looking for help identifying them. There are many here to help and a firm ID is the first step towards keeping your catfish in the best conditions.
Hard to tell in these guys. Head shape looks similar in both of yours, but the odontodes in the larger one suggest male to me. The less distinct coloration in the smaller one suggest female, but.....who knows. Here are some pics of my pair. Male female are obvious, but i dont have pics from above.
They are a very difficult fish to sex....... I agree that the larger one is male as females just don't get as much "hair" as he has. Coloration isn't a good way to sex them as they are slightly different colored from each locations....... hence the L75, L124, L301 ect. I personally have what I think is a pair of L301's and L75. Males will have a slightly larger fin size than females do of the same size fish and the hard spine is slightly thicker in the males also.