Heater broke! Fish won't eat!!!

Ok so today I found that my red parrot fish won't eat, and the color is turning pale pink, so I double checked temperature and found out that the heater broke! So instead of maintaining 27 degree celcius, it dropped to below 19 celcius as its winter here in Australia! I don't know how long the heater has been broken but the fish shows lack of interest in food like 2 days ago, it still eats but just lack of interest so I didn't think much. But today I touched the water by accident and felt it ice cold! I'm going out NOW to get a new heater but I'm just worried if this will cause the fish's life? I had him for almost 2 years and I don't want to lose him

p.s by broken heater I mean just it won't work, there's no crack etc

 

Oh no! Sorry to hear that but you know now and will get it fixed up ASAP. Wishing you luck with your parrot and I think he will be okay. I have no real knowledge to say this on, but my gut would be not to feed him for a day or so while the temperature comes back as his metabolism has slowed.

Good luck!

 

Thanks. Lucky my lfs is just minutes away! I just bought a new heater (better brand too) and put it in. The water is slowly heating up, the fish just sticks to the bottom and won't come up fingers crossed he pulls through!!!

 

Make sure the heat is slowly rising! Too fast and you may shock him. A degree or two every hour should be safe.

 

The tank is quite big so it will take hours before reaching the temp. An hour after putting it in and the temp only raised like 0.5 degree.

 

Update: So since I put the new heater in the tank, he started to get redder and more active. The next day when I went to feed him he happily ate. But today (a week later) he suddenly stops eating, I don't know why, he still swims actively, but won't eat. The temperature is 26 celcius and all parameters are good. I'm a bit worried he might be suffering the effect of the cold temperature when the heater broke a week ago. Not sure what I can do now, so worried

 

Update: So since I put the new heater in the tank, he started to get redder and more active. The next day when I went to feed him he happily ate. But today (a week later) he suddenly stops eating, I don't know why, he still swims actively, but won't eat. The temperature is 26 celcius and all parameters are good. I'm a bit worried he might be suffering the effect of the cold temperature when the heater broke a week ago. Not sure what I can do now, so worried

What are the exact parameters (pH, ammonia, nitrites, nitrates)?

 

Ph-7, Ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate about ~20ppm. I did a water change just now and might have found the reason. The drift wood I had in there was covered in white fungus like stuff at the bottom when I took it out to clean it. And the plant attached to the wood has the white stuff too. I'm guessing the change in temperature when the heater broke enable the growth of such fungus as I just cleaned the drift wood few weeks ago and it was all fine. I have taken the wood out, did a 60% water change, and I went out to bought some fake plants. But ever since I put the fake plants in there, he is hiding in the opposite corner, probably scared of the new deco. How long does it usually take for them to get used to the deco change in the tank?

 

If the fungus wasn't attached to the driftwood and was at the bottom of the tank, it could be uneaten food that fungused over - feed less.

It might take him a few days to get used to the new decor.

 

No the fungus was attached to the drift wood and the root of the plants that was on the wood. He seem to have gotten used to the new deco and is swimming around happily will see if he will start eating tomorrow.

 

Update: he started eating couple days ago, but still doesn't like his usual HikarI Cichild Bio Gold pellet (medium size). He will eat a little if I crush the pellet into smaller piece. But he really likes the super forte spirulina flakes and bloodworms. I've ordered some HikarI Blood parrot pellet(minI size) and will see if he likes it. Maybe he just became a picky eater ...

 

Update: so about a month ago he suddenly started eating his pellet food, so all was fine UNTIL TODAY. THE NEW HEATER I BOUGHT TWO MONTHS AGO BROKE DOWN ASWELL (AQUAEL Easyheater)

Sorry for the caps, but I'm so mad at the moment. The light on the heater still works, but the water isn't getting heated. I noticed it because he started to get disinterested in food again (he ate today but without much interest as usual), so checked temp and it's just 19 celcius! He's tank is always set to 27-28 celcius, so it's like a 7-8 degree drop! Again not sure how long it stopped working for, but I did water change two weeks ago and everything is fine. Lucky I have a spare heater (although smaller watt so I need to turn it up higher), or else where am I suppose to find a fish store opened at night?!

I HOPE I caught this one much early than before and there won't be any long lasting damage to him. And I definetly hope he won't stop eating his pellet food again...

Tomorrow I'm going to the fish shop where I ordered the custom build new tank from to get the best Shogun LED heater and pray that it won't have anymore problems as I'm currently using that in my turtle tank and it works so good.