How long a fish stays fresh, depends on numerous factors:

• Seafish usually stays longer than freshwater fish
• Fat fish (e.g. Eel, Mackerel) decays faster
• In winter, fish are less active in their habitat, therefore the stay longer fresh
• Gentle and quick processing (catch, killing, cleaning, gilling) after the catch preserves the quality
• Constant storage temperature
• Whole fishes should be gilled, the blood on the spine should be removed carefully. When stored at home also the gills should be removed.

Of course, seafish can´t be in Vienna the same day it is caught. But the transport is faster than you might think: Fish from Marocco is 24-36 hours after the catch in our display, fish from southern Europe after 12 hours.
Fish from Austrian freshwater fishery is brought to us living – they come with maximal freshness into our display.

As a benchmark for durability of fish you can assume:

• Filet should be consumed within 2 days.
• Whole fish should be consumed within 2-4 days (depends when it was killed).
• Filets to be consumed raw should not be older than 24 hours.

Please note that these are only benchmarks, assuming that the cold chain and hygienic procedures were followed, and are without warranty!
If you are not sure that you can prepare your fish immediately after buying it, maybe freezing would be a good solution. Fresh fish and filets can be frozen easily and without loss of quality. Please note, that small freezer compartments are not equal to deep freezers. When freezing, the fish should be packed dry and airtight. Frozen fish has – depending on the freezing system and the type of fish – a durability of 6-12 months.
Please note, that when cooking fish you should reach a core temperature of 70 degrees Celsius (158 F), to kill most bacteria. With deep-frying all bacteria are killed.