Apple support is so difficult to find your answers

i have an Apple ID & password and my device is setup properly. What I can't seem to get figured out is with my Apple ID is I also have an @icloud & @me email address associated with my Apple ID - how can I gain access to to these two email accounts? If I go into mail settings and try to add the @icloud or @me accounts, it gives me a message that my @gmail Apple ID is already in use,....it's useless trying to find info in the support community on this, guess I will search forums externally - this is OM my iPad mini Latest hardware version