Companion Chronicles: Kedrick: 5

I have sad news to share with my companions. My fish, Pierre, passed away last week. He was just about 10 years old. Pierre led a long life full of adventures, challenges, and friends. Pierre lived in two states and endured a number of moves and tank changes that we will only discover after taking this journey through his life. In this blog, I will share his life story with the help of all the pictures I could find.

To Pierre.

Summer 2015 to Summer 2016 - Oxford Manor - Gainesville, FL

Unfortunately, I couldn't find any photos of our first apartment since it appears Snapchat only started saving pictures in July 2016, but I will share the story of Pierre's beginnings. Pierre first came into my life in early summer 2015. I moved into my first apartment with my good friends Trey and Cooper. We would be entering our Junior year of college that fall and decided to live together after living in the fraternity house the year prior. Trey and his family had always been big aquarium hobbyists and had a saltwater tank in their house in Tallahassee. Trey's dad thought it would be fun for us to decorate our new apartment with its anchoring piece - a 50-gallon fish tank. It was the very same fish tank that he had in college! Trey and I were excited about this and went to the pet store to set up our tank. Once it was properly cycled and ready for life, we went back to the pet store and chose our first inhabitants. Among them was none other than Pierre.

This seems as good a time as any to explain his name. Most fish we adopted were given names of people in our fraternity that the fish vaguely resembled or simply reminded us of. Pierre was different. Trey and I, like most college students in the mid-2010s, were crazy for FIFA. We played in the fraternity house all the time and that didn't stop until many years later. One of our favorite teams to play as was Borussia Dortmund and they had a legendary speedster named Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. As soon as we saw Pierre and his black and yellow coat that matched Dortmund's jerseys, the name was chosen. It fit him perfectly.

August 2016 to December 2018 - The Cabin - Gainesville, FL

After a good year at Oxford Manor, Trey and I moved to a house near midtown (we turned 21 this summer so proximity to the local watering holes was a must). This house was famously named The Cabin. Pierre and his tankmates of course made the journey with us. He lived through a tremendous amount of adversity in the cabin but thrived as well. Tankmates came and went, most notably Chance the blue lobster who was a crowd favorite and the friendliest crustacean you'll ever meet. Pierre faced the toughest challenge of his life in March 2017. In early 2017, Trey and I added a fish to the tank as was common. His name was Wiz. I can sum it up by just saying that he was not friendly with Pierre. We soon noticed that he picked at Pierre ruthlessly. We monitored the situation and hoped that they could become amicable, but ultimately decided that only one of the fish could remain. Our allegiance was of course to Pierre. Removing Wiz from the tank didn't fix Pierre's problem as quickly as we hoped. He began to grow a sort of bacterial growth on his mouth that we feared may lead to his demise. Of course we now know that he made a full recovery and the only memory of Wiz was some scarring on Pierre's fin.

August 28, 2016

Pierre's next challenge happened sooner than expected during the summer of 2017. Trey had graduated with his typical 4-year degree that May, leaving the tank to me, and I was headed to an internship in Atlanta before my 5th and final year in Gainesville. I wanted to stay in the Cabin with Lucas set to join me in the fall, so we sublet the Cabin to one of our fraternity brothers. He promised he would take good care of the tank while I was gone. I returned in early August to a state of disarray. The Cabin was in god-awful shape and the tank was even worse off. Our beloved Chance the Lobster passed that summer along with many tankmates. Pierre, being the survivor he is, made it through unscathed. After my dad and I fixed the atrocities that had happened to the Cabin, I fixed up the tank and restored it to its former glory. Pierre then entered a period of prosperity with Lucas and me.

September 22, 2017

December 2018 to October 2020 - The Pointe at Lindbergh - Atlanta, GA

While I had moved to Atlanta in September for my job, Lucas remained in Gainesville and the tank with him. Moving to a new city and a new state for the first time was a challenge that didn't need to be made harder by hauling up a 50-gallon tank full of fish with me. A few months later, though, I was ready to begin the process. As I only drove an Acura sedan, my kind mother offered to drive up to Gainesville and make the trip with me. I was famously less prepared than I should have been when she arrived to help me, so Lucas, Jana, and I got the tank and all the supplies ready for the trip. I was concerned for the survival of Pierre and his tankmates on this 5-hour-long journey, but I had done a lot of research and was confident that I was giving them the best shot possible. We made it to Atlanta and the tank was set up with no casualties in the process!

December 2, 2018 - Loaded up!

December 2, 2018 - Easy

October 20, 2019
October 2020 to January 2023 - Skyhouse Midtown - Atlanta, GA

We lived in our first Atlanta apartment for a while, so the next move didn't happen until October 2020, coinciding with my first job change. This move was also infamous because we lived on the third floor of an open-air apartment building, so of course it had no elevator. My big brain thought it would be fine to transfer the tank with about 20% of the water so I could ensure that enough water with beneficial bacteria would make it through the move. I guess I had never heard of Home Depot buckets at this time. My good buddy Chris and I hauled the 50-gallon tank with way too much water in it down 3 flights of stairs. Luckily our new apartment was a high-rise in the city so it had an elevator, but that one-way trip was enough for us to rethink our entire lives. Pierre did just fine during this move in the U-Haul that I rented!

October 20, 2020 (what are the odds)

May 24, 2022

October 13, 2022
January 2023 to April 2023 - Skyhouse Midtown - Atlanta, GA

We lived in Skyhouse for a long time, but our time was coming up. After the last moving experience, and with a few of Pierre's larger tankmates passing away in the last few years, I decided that the 50-gallon tank's journey would come to an end. I had also gotten progressively lazier with cleaning it since it was such a production to do so. It made sense to downsize to a nice 10-gallon tank. I purchased one and set it up in my room. I also did all the aquarium hobbyist water stuff to make sure that my decision wouldn't lead to Pierre's demise, even putting a smaller fish in the new tank first to make sure the water was habitable. It was! So Pierre moved in shortly thereafter.

January 14, 2023 - New tank pre Pierre

January 22, 2023

I think he really enjoyed this new tank. It was much much cleaner and he got a lot of exposure to Tom and Chile which he seemed to enjoy. Tom would lay next to the tank for hours just staring at Pierre and the other fish.

February 19, 2023

March 24, 2023

April 2023 to May 2024 - Tens on West - Atlanta, GA

This move was thankfully very straightforward. Elevator to elevator and with a 10-gallon tank! No U-Hauls or mom cars were required. Just an Acura, my beautiful now-wife, and a dream. We were even able to transport with about 50% of the water in the tank so we didn't have to remove any fish from their tank!

March 25, 2023 - Moving Day!

March 25, 2023

I think this was a sort of golden age for Pierre. I know it was for Tom and Chile. They loved interacting with each other and everyone got a ton of natural sunlight in this corner apartment.

March 30, 2023

April 3, 2023

July 21, 2023

In fact, the tank got so much natural light that I had to deal with an algae bloom by installing a UV light, something that I had never done before. Luckily, it did the trick!!

January 15, 2024 - Algae bloom

January 15, 2024

January 25, 2024

February 9, 2024 - Good as new!

February 10, 2024

May 10, 2024

May 2024 to April 2025 - Olde Ivy - Atlanta, GA

After a great year at Tens on West, it was time for Pierre to move one last time. We once again moved across town, this time with Pierre in a trusty Home Depot bucket. Everything went off without a hitch and Pierre enjoyed his new home! He even got to live with a third cat, Maxx, who was very curious about this new inhabitant. When I first moved in, Maxx would just sit by the tank and look up at Pierre.

May 25, 2024

June 13, 2024

In early March 2025, I came downstairs to leave for work and noticed that our beloved Pierre was floating sideways at the top of the tank. I was completely devastated and had a very emotional drive to work that morning. Throughout that day, I frantically googled what could be wrong and even posted on Reddit about it. I tried a few different things - fasting him, trying to hand feed him skinned peas, trying an antibacterial treatment, but nothing worked.

January 31, 2025 - Last photo of a healthy Pierre
Taken on my 35mm film camera the day I got it

Pierre passed away on Thursday, April 3, 2025. Lizzie and I held a memorial service that evening. Maxx and Tom even watched through the window to pay their respects to their friend. Pierre is buried on our patio in his final resting place, a planter with caladium bulbs that he will fertilize and provide life to, just as he provided to joy and happiness to everyone who met him.