Weird growth/wound on green terror

[Nim Dibbley]

I noticed yesterday during feeding my green terror/gold saum had what looked like a piece of his lip torn halfway off and it was swaying in the current and still attached. he ate fine and he does get in fights with the gourami so i decided to just keep an eye on it. I looked at him again tonight and it almost looks more like a growth coming off of the top of his lip.

i wanted to post some pics to get some opinions but between the glare from the flash and the other fish in the tank it was really hard to get a good picture of it. this is the best i could do:



not sure if you can make it out in those pictures...hopefully you can see what i am talking about. What do you think?

 

[Aquanero]

You say they fight from time to time so it is very reasonable to assume it was caused by that. Sometimes a bruse will form in the area where the abrasion occured from fighting. I have seen lips get ripped off broken jaws where the fish could not eat and had to be put down ect. I would keep an eye on it. Keep the water very clean so it doesn't devlope into fungas or become infected. You could add some aquarium salt to the tank to help facilitate healing too. If it is becoming that much of an issue I would seperate the fish. HTH GL

 

[Nim Dibbley]

my assumption was a wound...but i don't know. today it looks more like its a loose piece of skin hanging off of the top part of the lip...which i guess is a good sign? i did add some salt and thank you for the suggestion. I also cut down on feeding since i noticed it to assist with water quality.

They do fight but it is rare. they have been housed together since they were both 4 inches and that was a year and a half ago. they have been the only two aggressive fish in the tank since July. The green terror is about 8 inches and the red tail giant gourami is about 13. When they do go at it the gourami gets the better of it...but their fights are very few and far between.

i was considering adding another cichlid or two so the gourami and gt would spread the aggression around a bit more, but i never got around to it and assuming this is an injury this would be the first injury i have seen.