Kissing Gouramis

Question
Hi there,

I have two pink kissing gourami's for quite some time,  three days ago, I noticed that one of them had a large lump on the side of his body, it seemed to come out of no where! It is located just under the small fin that is behind his gill, he still eats/swims around but not nearly as much as before this lump showed up! Then today I noticed that this lump has broken through his skin and it looks like small amounts of light brown/tan stuff is coming out of it (not a ton if stuff but just small amounts here and there) Im worried he will die and I dont want him to! Is there anything I can do to help him? I looked around on line for some possible answers, i just keep finding Hole in the Head disease when trying to search it up!

We have a 55 gallon tank, along with the two kissing fish,there is also a blue dwarf gourami, 3 Dojo Loaches,2 angel fish ( one is quite large and one is smaller)  5 zebra danios and a catfish.
So far all the fish have gotten along great, they seem to just stay in their own little areas and dont bother each other at all!

We also have some live plants  including a moss ball, lots of hiding areas, and there is plenty of room in our tank,and the water levels are normal!

Any help at all with this would be great!

Answer
Hi Christine,
  Hmm.... it sounds like he has (or had) some sort of internal parasite, likely a worm of some sort, that is attempting to get out of his body.  The other possibility would be a tumor but they don't grow that fast.  In either case, there really isn't anything you can do about it.   (It is definitely not hole in the head).  Hopefully he will be strong enough to pull through.  

-- Ron C.
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
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