P. Chinensis fasting during mating season

Hi all,

I have an adult male P. Chinensis who entered breeding season last year and stopped eating for about 1.5 weeks. At that time, I posted here about this behaviour and was advised that it is normal. This year, however, my newt entered breeding season over 1 month ago, and has not eaten since. I am becoming worried. I try to feed him every day and he closes his eyes and turns his head away. I have noticed that - at least with my newt - mating season is closely connected with water temperature. When his tank temperature drops below +20C (68F), he becomes agitated, his tail stripe brightens, and his cloaca becomes engorged. The temperature in my house has fallen to approx. +18C (66-67F) over the past month (as we entered autumn), and it will not rise back to +20 for several months without artificial intervention. I am wondering if I should artificially raise my newt's tank-temperature back to +20C in order to convince him to eat again, or should I just be patient and wait for him to come out of this on his own? He is still fat and healthy looking, but I am worried about how long he can stay this way without food.

I have attached a couple recent pics.

Thank you for your feedback!

Hello, with the temperature drop, my newts lose my appetite a bit but can not resist a worm on the move.
Very nice tank you, I really like the multiplication Vallisneria and functional!: D