Waterwheel Japanese Koi Farm sits on a quiet piece of land in
Mount Croghan, South Carolina, deep in the Sandhills. It's a
working farm — not a showroom, not a storefront, and everything
about the way we operate reflects that. We're a small family
business with big ambitions, and we'd rather do things the right
way slowly than the wrong way quickly.

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HOW IT ALL BEGAN

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The farm started in 2020 with a few ponds, a lot of ambition,
and a deep love for koi. Like most people who fall into this
hobby, what began as a passion quickly turned into something
bigger — the dream of building a koi farm in the American South
that could one day stand alongside the great koi operations of
the world.

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The early years were a learning curve. We bred koi, raised them
in our mud ponds, sold them locally, and slowly figured out what
worked and what didn't. We learned what a koi needs to thrive,
what a pond needs to support them, and what kind of farm we
wanted Waterwheel to become.

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THE NAME

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The farm is named for the waterwheel that's been a fixture of
the property for years. It used to help aerate one of our ponds, moving water, keeping things alive, doing quiet work in the
background.

 

It's currently undergoing repair, and one day it
will take its place again as the centerpiece of a display pond,
surrounded by waterfalls, fountains, and some of our largest
breeding koi. A working piece of farm history that visitors can
come and see.

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The name "Waterwheel" stuck because it captures something true
about how we operate: steady, deliberate, always moving forward,
and rooted in the natural flow of things.

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THE 2025 REBUILD

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By 2025, we'd reached a turning point. We could keep going as we
had been, breeding what we had, selling what we bred, growing
slowly, or we could make a hard decision and rebuild the farm
around a higher standard.

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We chose the rebuild.

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That year, we made the commitment to import koi exclusively from
top Japanese breeders and to base our entire breeding program on
Japanese bloodlines going forward. It was a significant
investment, both financially and in terms of time. Our first
major shipment of 180 imports came in, and despite the
heartbreak of losing some to shipping delays and predators along
the way, the surviving fish became the foundation of everything
we're building now.

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We still stock affordable domestic pond-quality koi for
hobbyists who want to bring color to their pond without paying
import prices, and we're proud of those fish. But every koi we
breed now traces back to Japanese broodstock, and every year
going forward, we'll be adding to that broodstock with new
imports from Japan.

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WHO WE ARE

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The farm today is run by Alex and Megan Tassoglou, husband and
wife, with help from family.

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Alex is the head of the farm, the builder, the operator, the
one who keeps everything running. He's been part of this land
since the very beginning, helping shape the farm from the ground
up as a kid, running tractor work, and learning every inch of
the property hands-on. If a pond needs repair, a tank needs
plumbing, or a new piece of infrastructure needs to go in the
ground, that's Alex.

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Megan handles the fish side, grading, pricing, variety
identification, and the breeding program. She's the one who can
tell a Showa from a Sanke at a glance, who decides which fish
moves to which tier, and who makes the call on what gets bred
and what gets sold.

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Together, we run Waterwheel as a true family business. Our first
child was born in 2024, and our hope is that they — along with
any future children, will grow up around the farm and one day
carry it forward.

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WHAT WE'RE BUILDING TOWARD

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We're not trying to be the biggest koi farm in America. We're
trying to be one of the best small ones.

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The vision is simple: build a farm that holds itself to Japanese
standards, run it as a family for generations, and make
Japanese-quality koi accessible to anyone who wants one, even
if they can only afford a single fish. We want Waterwheel to be
the kind of place where a brand-new hobbyist can get their first
koi and where a serious collector can find a fish worth keeping
for decades.

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We've got a lot of plans, a lot of expansion ahead, and a lot of
work still to do. But the foundation is in place, the bloodlines
are imported, the breeding program is underway, and we're just
getting started.