why is everyone so against mixing cichlids?

There is nothing inherently wrong with keeping different types of cichlids together.

Different suitable water conditions that the cichlids are 'used to' is a problem. 'Used to' in quotation marks, because many aquarium strains of fish, especially cichlids, are much more resilient than their wild counterparts - therefore, it actually is not so crazy to keep different cichlids that prefer different water parameters. Of course, certain cichlids are not at all variable, but with a lot of the fish you list there - firemouth, convicts, labs - they're quite adaptable to all sorts of water parameters, so for them it does not matter much. They may live in very specific conditions in the wild, but aquarium strains, not so much.

Next up is temperaments, and that's the main potential problem in your tank, because the crossbreed, if you don't know what it is, is probably a flowerhorn, red tex, or of an aggressive cichlid, which probably will cause problems. Africans are also known to be problematic, but in your case, it's actually fine - you have enough fish to distribute the aggression over. I mix plenty of cichlids in my tanks - no africans tho, because I dislike africans, but no matter the temperament, they live fine. Elliotis, convicts, green texans, red forest jewels (okay, so maybe one type of african) and red devils. A bit of chasing, but nothing else. Oh and 4 bristlenoses as well. :) And at one point, 2 bullrouts in there (freshwater Australian stonefish).

And lastly, hybridization. Inherently, there's nothing wrong with it. At all. Hybridization really is just two fish of two different species breeding together, and really, there's nothing wrong with that. What people complain about is the fact that they get sold off as non-hybrids, which obviously is a problem as that means that the seller is lying. And that can cause problems in terms of IDing problems later.

tldr; I don't think there's anything wrong with housing different cichlids together. Go for it if you want, especially with the list you posted - though, what size tank are you putting these in?

Kadango Cichlid

Water requirements are an issue also There are dietary needs, breeding habits, aggression levels (especially once sexually mature), how easily stressed some fish may be by others...

I keep a lot of Different Cichlids in various tanks but i only keep ones together that are compatible .

Hi,

You have red ears, from the limestone rich regions of North America. Red ears are especially prevalent in Kentucky, where much of the water in rivers and streams flow through limestone caves at some point, making it very hard and alkaline. They are Centrachids, not Cichlids, morphologically and behaviorally similar to cichlids but genetically unrelated.

You have Copadichromis borleyi (red fin), Labidochromis caeruleus (electric yellow) , and Melanochromis johanni,(electric blue johani) all three from one single lake in East Africa, called Lake Malawi. Like the long ears, they all live in a limestone rich area with chemically very similar water conditions.

You have a convict cichlid and a firemouth cichlid, both from that extension of the North American continent called Central America, and just to the south of the southern range limit of the long ear sunfish. If you think I'm going to point out that this is again an area rich in limestone and hard alkaline water, you are catching on. Most crossbreed cichlids either come from Lake Malawi, Africa, or Central America.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVN1gYVdPMg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TUaa2jIEUs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW3nuJR15OE

Cichlids come from very soft water, brackish even marine water, dark tea colored water almost devoid of minerals, soda lakes in volcanoes with unique and extreme water chemistry, still deep nearly anoxic waters, turbulent rapids, and you have avoided all of those. The discus, wild rams, apistogramma, Pevicachromis, altum angelfish, Congo River cichlids, Amazon River cichlids, Madagascar, and Indian subcontinent cichlids are all missing from your collection.

As juveniles these fish are likely to all get along. Some of them will later get famously along and produce crosses of firemouth and convict, or johanni, lab, borleyi crosses. However this will also be a time of territorial squabbles, intensified by the fact that the instinctive body language cichlids use to communicate with each other is not the same from one continent to another.

None of this explains why people are so mad about mixing cichlids, unless they are offended by gratuitous carnage. The hybridization is what bothers them.

When you cross different species of cichlids, you get fish that often are less colorful and more variable than either parent stock. In the second generation you get some fish that are genetically still 50/50 of each species but closely resemble one parent species or the other. If sold as that species, they contaminate someone's pure line and like most hybrids introduce sterility, genetic abnormalities, and eventually result in the line becoming all sterile or too deformed to survive. So crossing cichlids makes us totally dependent on wild imports of new blood into our fish, or they will die out. This is not just simple economics but also reducing our dependence on harvesting wild life instead of creating sustainable captive populations.

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For one they usually have different temperaments. But for what you have chosen, it should work out OK. It is not usually a good idea because of size differences, and and the water they need to be kept in. But when you say its works fine, don't be surprised if you wake up one day to find that only the Africans are left. It maybe working OK for now, but in the long term in may not.