Emergency!!!!

[beezer720]

I came home tonight at about 2:00 to find my arowana wasn't swimming. I thought it jumped out, but I found it on the bottom still. I could see its gills were slightly moving as were its eyes. For some reason the heater stopped, I think the plug kind of came out. The temp was probably around 70 although i don't really know because i could feel the cold water and immediately ran to fill up some containers with warm/hot water. I leave the tank about 20% empty so I can always see the aro and it has less of a chance of even trying to jump out. Well i filled about 5 gallons worth of water and added it to the tank. I didnt want to add a bunc of water/ do water change because I didnt want to send an already near death fish into shock. I figured I had a better chance of adding an extra heater and slowly rasing the temp and monitoring the situation. After adding the water the temp was around 72. Now at 5:45 the temp is about 76. When first adding the water the aro responded a bit by slowly swimming/struggling. When it went near the water flow from HOB filter it would just kind of spin about like a dead fish but continue to slowly swim. It was bumping into sides of the tank. Now it is still very lethargic but can actually swim relatively well but it is like it is completely drunk. Does anyone know/think that this fish will make it and ultimately be fine?? Has anyone had this problem, not necessarily with aro, but with any other fish that likes the same temps as aros(most fish)? Did they live and end up being their old selves? I have a feeling it will live because of how much more it is breathing and how much better it looks swimming now, but i dont know if it will be all messed up still or go back to normal once its blood starts flowing again and it acclimates itself to the water. Would fish like these be like humans where the 3-5 hours (I imagine) that it was not breathing properly and not having blood flowing to its brain would cause brian/long term damage? Sorry if the questions are too many or weird but I've already lost one aro to another fish (I think) and I've had this one for a couple months now and am getting a little attached to it. Any experience or knowledge would help, if not I'll just have to wait it out.

[beezer720]

It's 6:20 and its just kind of sitting on the gravel bed in the corner. It appears to be breathing fine and its eyes are moving as i near. Would raising the temp 6 degrees in a matter of 3-4 hours possibly cause shock? I'm sick of pulling an all nighter for this ******* so I'm gonna hit the hay and just hope to find him swimming normally at the top tomorrow morning. I also hope to find that at least a couple of you have had experiences similar to this and had it turn out all right. Also I forgot to say all water parameters are perfect except for ph which is about 7.2, would like that a bit lower right?

[mightyBetta]

got areation? Try some stress coat. Maybe your aro has out grew the tank and is in too much stress. I wouldn't take the water from it if I were you . That would probably stress it more due to uncomfortness. If youre afraid it would jump out, then put something heavy enough on top of the tank. And yeah, I think sudden change of water condition can make it worst. Do everything with care..