Generally speaking, there are few wild yellow croaker in fishing season, and there are great differences in appearance and taste between cultured yellow croaker and wild large yellow croaker. In appearance, wild Pseudosciaena crocea has a yellower body color, a brighter mouth, a thinner body and a smaller stomach. Because of the living environment, the mouth and eye socket of wild Pseudosciaena crocea will appear larger, with thick scales and closely arranged meat, which is chewy and delicious. However, the cultured Pseudosciaena crocea lives in a cage relatively leisurely, lacks exercise, is obese, has a bulging abdomen, a dark yellow or gray skin color and a light lip color. In addition, the fins of wild Pseudosciaena crocea are generally clean and complete, and the fins are long. Moreover, when fishing at sea, the swim bladder died due to air pressure explosion, and there was almost no painful struggle. Scales and fins on the body will not leave traces of congestion. Those fins look a little red, broken and short; Fish with red spots and scars must be farmed. Because the cultured Pseudosciaena crocea is generally caged, it is easy to get injured when swimming in a narrow space. At present, some deep-sea cultured Pseudosciaena crocea are similar in appearance to wild Pseudosciaena crocea, but the meat quality is slightly soft and the taste is not as pure as that of wild Pseudosciaena crocea.

Wild yellow croaker can also be divided into large yellow croaker and small yellow croaker. They are not only distinguished by the size of the head. Generally speaking, large yellow croaker can grow to more than 50 cm, and small yellow croaker can only grow to more than 20 cm. Some customers treat small yellow croaker as small yellow croaker. In fact, the main difference between the two is the tail, scales and maxilla. Small yellow croaker has short and thick tail, large scales, slender tail and slightly smaller scales. The lower jaw of Pseudosciaena crocea is slightly prominent, while the upper and lower jaws of Pseudosciaena crocea are basically flat.