re: Let's talk "insider" industry secrets

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Most catfish comes individually frozen in a huge box and is farm raised. Everywhere I ever worked, it was thawed in gallon oyster buckets, and iced nightly, but often was just floating in water. Even if taken very good care of, it's just not great quality fish.

As for amberjack and mahi, they also came in individually frozen, but also individually Kryo-vac'd (no idea how to spell that). They'd always get a slim layer of slime pretty soon after being thawed, that washed off and didn't really affect the taste. The amberjack was always a little hard and gray too. Just kinda nasty.

Fish in general will go bad pretty quickly. Restaurants don't like to throw stuff away. I'll eat any fish if it is fresh and I cook it or I'm in a very good restaurant, but not in a not-nice restaurant.

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Most Gulf Fish comes in fresh though. I would order redfish or black drum almost anywhere.
The freshest fish I ever had though was at a Mexican restaurant in cozumel;.
You ordered the fish or lobster and the waiter's brother went in the water and spearfished it for you. Place had no power, but food was excellent.

But I never order tilapia as it is used to eat the shite in Salmon farms and keep the farms clean. Catfish is used similarly in freshwater fish farms.