Healthy, quarantined koi and fancy goldfish — swimming in Midtown Memphis.
Koi Fish & Fancy Goldfish for Sale in Memphis, TN
Pick your own fish from our tanks instead of gambling on a shipping box. We hold and observe every fish before it goes home, and we’ll tell you honestly whether your pond is ready for it.
Pick Your Own Fish
See every fish swimming before you choose. Color, finnage, and body shape are impossible to judge from a photo.
Quarantined Before They Sell
New arrivals are held and observed before they hit the sales tanks, so you’re not importing a problem into an established pond.
Honest Stocking Advice
We’d rather sell you three good fish than eight that crash your water quality by August.
Support After the Sale
Questions about feeding, winter, or a fish that’s acting off — bring us a water sample and we’ll work through it.
Choosing Your Fish
Koi or Goldfish? The Honest Answer Depends on Your Pond
The most common mistake we see isn’t a bad fish — it’s a good fish in the wrong pond. Koi and goldfish have genuinely different requirements, and matching them to what you’ve actually built saves years of frustration.
Koi are large fish. A mature koi reaches roughly two feet, and some go well past that. They want volume and depth: as a working rule, plan on around 250 gallons per adult koi, with at least three feet of depth somewhere in the pond. They’re also enthusiastic diggers who will uproot potted plants for entertainment.
Goldfish do everything on a smaller scale. Comets and shubunkins are hardy, fast, single-tailed fish that thrive in modest water gardens and handle current well. Fancy varieties — orandas, ryukins, fantails, black moors — are slower and more ornamental, which makes them beautiful in a calm pond and vulnerable in a fast one.
If you have a water garden under a thousand gallons, goldfish will look better and live better than koi will. We’ll tell you that before we sell you anything.
Two feet or more at maturity. Want 250+ gallons each and 3 feet of depth. Long-lived, personable, and hard on plants.
Same fish, longer flowing fins. Dramatic from above, which is how most ponds are actually viewed.
Hardy, quick, single-tailed. The right call for smaller water gardens and ponds with strong flow.
Orandas, ryukins, fantails, and moors. Slower swimmers that show best in calm, well-filtered water.
What’s In Our Tanks
Koi and Goldfish Varieties We Carry
Stock changes constantly — fish sell, new ones arrive, and availability shifts with the season. Call ahead at (901) 286-3302 if you’re looking for something particular, and we’ll tell you what’s actually swimming.
Kohaku
Sanke & Showa
Ogon & Metallic Koi
Butterfly Koi
Asagi & Shusui
Utsuri & Bekko
Comets & Sarasa
Shubunkins
Fancy Goldfish
Why Buy Your Fish Here
Why Memphis Pond Owners Buy Their Koi From Us
Fish are the one pond purchase where the seller’s judgment matters most. A stressed or sick fish doesn’t announce itself in a photo, and one bad addition can take down an established pond you’ve spent years building.
We hold new arrivals before they go up for sale, we watch how they behave, and we sell fish we’d put in our own ponds. We also design and maintain ponds across the Memphis area — which means we’ve seen what happens six months and six years after the sale, and we’ll factor that into what we recommend.
We Watch Them First
New fish are held and observed before sale. Problems show up in that window, not after they’re in your pond.
Sized to Your Pond
Bring photos and rough dimensions and we’ll tell you what your water can actually support.
We Maintain Ponds Too
We see the long-term outcome of stocking decisions, not just the sale.
Advice That Costs Us Money
If your pond isn’t ready, we’ll say so and you’ll come back later. That’s the trade we’d rather make.
Continuing the Palladio Tradition
Our Design Center occupies the former Palladio Memphis on South Cox Street, for years the place Memphians came for garden and outdoor furnishings. We’re carrying that forward, now with a team that designs, builds, and maintains water features across the Mid-South.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common Questions About Koi and Goldfish
A few things Memphis pond owners ask us most often before they stock.
Stock changes weekly. Call us at (901) 286-3302 or stop by — everything we have is swimming where you can see it.
It depends on volume, filtration, and aeration more than surface area. A conservative starting point for koi is around 250 gallons per adult fish; goldfish need considerably less. Bring photos and rough dimensions and we’ll work it out with you. Understocking is nearly always the better mistake.
Yes, in a properly built pond. Koi and goldfish go dormant as water drops toward 50°F and overwinter fine here as long as the pond has enough depth — generally at least two and a half to three feet — and a way for gases to escape if the surface freezes. Never break ice by striking it; the shock wave can injure dormant fish. Run an aerator or de-icer to hold an opening instead.
As water temperature drops below about 50°F, koi and goldfish can no longer digest properly and feeding should stop entirely. Between roughly 50 and 60°F, switch to a wheat-germ-based food. A pond thermometer is worth more than a calendar here — Memphis autumns swing.
Spring through early fall, once water has warmed and stabilized. Adding fish late in the season gives them little time to settle before dormancy. If you’re stocking a brand-new pond, let it cycle first — we’ll walk you through what that means.
If you have an established pond you care about, yes. Two to four weeks in a separate holding container is cheap insurance. We quarantine before selling, but a second round on your end is still best practice.
Plan A Visit
How to Get Started
Stop by Monday through Saturday. No appointment needed.
Photos and rough dimensions are enough for us to size your stocking.
We’ll bag your fish and walk you through acclimation so they settle in cleanly.
Visit Us Today
Buy Koi and Goldfish in Midtown Memphis
Our koi and goldfish are swimming at the Memphis Water Gardens Design Center, 741 S Cox St, Memphis, TN 38104, at the former Palladio Memphis location. We are an easy trip from East Memphis, Germantown, Collierville, Bartlett, Cordova, Arlington, Lakeland, Southaven, and Olive Branch.
741 S Cox St., Memphis, TN 38104
Phone : (901) 286-3302
Monday - Saturday: 9:00am to 4:00pm (Closed Sunday)
Come Meet Your Fish First
Buying koi shouldn’t mean opening a box and hoping. Come see what’s swimming, ask us the hard questions about your pond, and pick fish you’ve actually looked at.