Sciaenidae species have been an important focus of global marine fisheries and mariculture for a long time owing to its delicate meat, delicious taste, and high corresponding economic value. At present, several species of the family have been successfully cultivated in China, such as Pseudosciaena polyactis, Megalonibea fusca, Nibea diacanthus, Collichthys lucidus, and Sciaenops ocellatus, but none are suitable for freshwater aquaculture in China. Among the 70 genera with 270 existing species of Sciaenidae, only a few are freshwater species, including Boesemania microlepis from Southeast Asia and Aplodinotus grunniens from the Americas. A. grunniens is commonly known as the freshwater drum, topuche, or sheepshead. Freshwater drum have several advantages such as fast growth, good meat quality, no intermuscular spines, and strong adaptability. It is suitable for freshwater and brackish aquaculture in most parts of China and has a broad market prospect. In terms of reproduction biology, embryonic and larval development is one of the key research agendas. Understanding the development characteristics and timings of fish embryos is helpful for improving hatching and survival rates of larvae. At present, there are no data available on embryonic and larval development of freshwater drum for domestic cultivation, and foreign research has not been systematic owing to limitations in artificial breeding technology. This study on artificially reared freshwater drum specimens is the first to obtain fertilized eggs by manual stimulation with oxytocin. Subsequently, the sequence and morphological characteristics of developing embryos of freshwater drum were recorded and described in detail. We believe that our results will enrich the biological data on early development and provide theoretical guidance for the artificial breeding of freshwater drum. The results showed that all studied males of the species were sexually mature, while most females were sexually mature after 3 years of artificial cultivation and can spawn more than once during a spawning season. Artificial reproduction could be realized by means of enhanced cultivation and manual oxytocin stimulation. The spawning duration of freshwater drum was approximately 27 h (23–24 ℃). Mature eggs were slightly yellow with an average diameter of 1.07 mm (SD= 0.04). Newly fertilized eggs of freshwater drum were spherical, pelagic, translucent, and non-adhesive with only one concentric drop of oil of 0.66 mm (SD = 0.02). There were 2–3 drops of oil of different sizes among fertilized eggs. The diameter of fertilized egg expanded to 1.41 mm (± 0.03). The embryonic development of freshwater drum can be divided into 7 phases and 29 periods, including: disk formation, cleavage, blastocyst, gastrula, neurula, organ formation, and incubation. Eclosion started at 25.5 h post-fertilization when larvae had attained a length of 2.88 mm (SD = 0.10). The morphologic characters recorded in the study were similar to those of Sciaenidae species in general. The diameter of the eggs and the length of the larvae for freshwater drum were larger than those of other Sciaenidae species such as Miichthys miiuy, Nibea albiflora, N. diacanthus, C. lucidus, and S. ocellatus and the same as those of P. polyactis. The diameter of the drop of oil was obviously larger than that of the other Sciaenidae species mentioned above. This study is the first to report the embryonic development characteristics of freshwater drum under artificial culture and manual oxytocin stimulation and will provide basic data and important references for future implementation of large-scale breeding of the species.