The fishes of the family Sciaenidae have been known to vocalize during the reproductive season, and it is known that in most species only the male calls. Sounds are produced by vibration of the sonic muscles, which set the swim bladder into resonance. In addition, they also emit sounds by the same mechanism while being disturbed. The large yellow croaker, Larimichthys crocea (Perciformes, Sciaenidae) is one of the important commercial fish species distributed in South China Sea, East China Sea and southern Yellow Sea. In the past years, they have been overfished because of their high fishery value. Many aquatic farms started to culture economically important sciaenids because of the established artificial propagation technique. Now large yellow croakers have been successfully cultured in Fuchien Province, China. Unlike most sciaenids, the sonic muscles are only possessed by male, both male and female large yellow croakers have sonic muscles. This species provides the best opportunity to investigate the characteristics of sounds produced by different genders. The aims of this study were 1) to describe the hand-held disturbance sounds in large yellow croakers, 2) to describe the sounds produced during courtship and spawning in large yellow croakers being injected hormone (LHRH-A3), 3) to investigate the phylogenetic position of large yellow croaker in relation to other sciaenid fishes, and 4) to understand the evolutionary path of swim bladder morphology in the family Sciaenidae. The results show that 1) the pulse numbers of hand-held disturbance sounds in large yellow croaker can reach 23; 2) The reproductive sounds consisted of 1 to 7 pulses which started at about 1400 hr, and both vocal activity (no. sounds/min) and pulse numbers per call would increase with time. However, spawning occupied at the time slot when pulse numbers per call reached 7 in the unisex pond. The sounds in the ponds with only males or females can only recorded the sounds with 1 to 2 pulses; 3) The genus Collichthys was the sister taxon of large yellow croaker. Morphology of the swim bladder in Collichthys is similar to large yellow croaker; 4) Morphology of swim bladder evolved from simple to complex forms. Finally, Larimichthys, Collichthys, and other sciaenid genera distributed in the Indo-western Pacific Ocean including Miichthys, Boesemania, Bahaba, Panna, Atrobucca, Otolithes, Pterotolithus, Chrysochir, Paranebris, Protonibea, Pennahia, Nibea, Dendrophysa and Johnius form a monophyletic group with a bootstrap value of 100. Most of the members have the complex swim bladders with many appendages except Boesemania, Bahaba and Paranebris. Presence of simple form of the swim bladder in these three genera is inferred as a result of morphological reversal.