Please help with my Jack Dempsey's

[Nemesis]

I have 2 Jack Dempseys both 2', in a 55 gallon tank, one is an Electric Blue. They both have refused to eat for the past 5 days, and the EBJD is breathing very hard. The last thing they ate was half a cube of hikari frozen blood worms. My water parameters are Ph 6.4, Ammonia 1ppm, Nitrites 0, and Nitrates 10ppm. Ive just raised the ph from 5.6 to 6.4 over the past 4 days(0.2 per day) using crushed coral. The ammonia just rose yesterday from .25 to 1ppm, and didnt change when I did a 10% water chang last night. Ive been doing 10-15% every other day for the past 2 weeks, as the tank is still cycling(not sure if its done yet). Ive been using stress zyme and stress coat during water changes. Is ammonia deadly at these ph levels(Ive heard that ph below 7 causes ammonium not ammonia). The ammonia doesnt show up on my live nh3, but does on the api test kit.

Last week I noticed that the EBJD had 3 small white spots(ich Im sure), so I raised the temp to 84 and added salt. It now only has 1 spot on its right fin that seems to be fading. Is it the ich thats causing them not to eat, if so what else can I do? I have a bottle of aquari-sol, but Im scared to use it because the tank might still be cycling. How long can they live withou eating? Any info or suggestions would be appreciated, thank you.

 

[Nemesis]

Just realized that I posted this in media, sorry. Moving to c/sa cichlids. I there any way to close this thread?

 

[lach]

ph is a bit low
can be a mox of ich low ph and new environment to cause them to not eat properly

ime fast gill movements and fin flapping which is what i associate heavy breathing as is a sign of stress

i may be wrong about being low ph

 

[ErikFromNJ]

Any ammonia is deadly. I would take the eb out and put it in a cycled tank. If not I wouldn't bother with the stress coat. Use Prime. As far as food try soaking some in garlic.

If it has ich too, I also would raise the temps a little more and add some salt. Also, slow down on the WC's. My eb's hate wc's. it just adds more stress to an already delicate fish. With just 2 fish in the tank, there is no need to change the water that often. More like 10-15% once a week.