I hear you on that I paid a ridiculous amount here in Canada ..one LFS was £18 each.... mental.
That is expensive, I noticed they had them in P@H for £9.99 each the other day. Cheap but probably crappy stock, and they keep them in tap water here (very very hard!). Looked healthy though.As everyones experiences are different, when I was keeping and breeding EBR's the pH was about 6 (maybe a little lower). I personally found them no more difficult to keep than GBR's. I wish I never stopped breeding them, I thought about getting another pair just for my community tank and cannot get over the prices they are now.... one LFS was £18 each.... mental.