South American Cichlids and African Cichlids together?

No you will not get any cross breeds from keeping Africans with South Americans. If you lay out all South Americans and all Africans, you'll find close to 90% of the Africans are mouthbrooders, and about 90% of the South Americans are egg layers. That alone is one barrier preventing cross breeds. Even if you match up 2 egg laying or 2 mouth brooding species, you still are not going to get any cross breeds. As many have noted, the South Americans are generally much much larger and aggress in different ways then the much smaller Africans.

Mixing them, yes it can be done, however this is not a practice I will encourage at all. Most people that keep fish tanks today put little stock into all aspects of water chemistry. I find it very practical and useful. I look well beyond the typical nitrogen compounds and look also into my PH, GH and KH readings. Africans need this very much. I also keep and breed Africans, many species actually. I find when I adjust my water chemistry after a few weeks at a time, their is a heightend level of activity in them along with much more striking colorations in males.

You have little to worry about cross breeds, but you really should not mix them. Size differences, temperments, and water chemistry needs are just too far apart. I would only advise this with the most experienced of cichlid keepers. Pretty much, one species is going to thrive, and another is not. Too hard to find the right balance in your water.

I still don't really understand what your main question is. You ask about South American and Africans, mention you buy Africans from your LFS. You are now considering getting South Americans to inhabit the same tank of your Africans, I'm assuming? Covered that aspect along with the cross breeding, however, you said you bought a female, but a female what? Good that you have lots of caves and plants, but that pretty much is only needed for Mbuna, this would have little to no effect on Peacocks and Haps.

South American Cichlids

Some cichlids can hybridize, but it's not a good idea to keep African cichlids and South American cichlids together. Africans can be pretty aggressive, but some SA cichlids can get even bigger and nastier and they both have very different water requirements.

Depending on the species, the water requirements could be vastly different. Most South American cichlids live in soft, acidic waters but some prefer harder water eg. Midas, Jack Dempsey, Convict, Jaguar. One thing is that some species can grow much larger than most African species, so your African cichlids risk getting beaten up. All in all, probably not a very good idea.

Yes. I have had African and South American cichlids breeding in my tank for 2 years now. The original pair brood surprisingly and had 29 babies. 6 of them were left when the next set of babies appeared. Unfortunately we didn't realize it in time, and only 1 survived. Now there are 5 left. One male and 4 females. The male brood with all 4 females and we are about to have around 100 babies in our tank. They are all cross-bred. You do have to be careful and separate them appropriately throughout the process, but it can be done. Also, if you have more than one male, make sure to separate them once they have mated. They will fight to the death to remain dominant if they have to. The babies are oh so cute!

I keep both together. Always best to start them out small and together. I even add barbs sometimes. But, I am very careful to keep the tank at 7.0 ph. I also feed a variety of foods to do my best to meet all the nutritional needs. In 20 years, the Africans and South Americans have never cross bred. I did once did have a vixen of a female orange parrot. She flirted with every male. lol

Due to them coming from completely different continents, they've never had interactions before. Most likely, this will result in one of the fish beating up the other one. The only way you could possibly offset is this to put extra "caves" or whatever you use as caves in so that two fish don't wind up fighting for the choice cave, as they may have different tastes. If you could tell the gender of the fish, that could also play a part, as males are obviously more aggressive.

I agree that mixing south americans and africans is a bad idea. South americans generally get bigger, and some can be really nasty. Also, they cannot cross breed. And parrot fish are themselves a hybrid fish, and although they may lay eggs and take care of them, most are sterile.

Yes they can since they are from the same family.