Dietary Value of Boiled Moringa Leaf Meal Albert. V. Manuel, A.M. Shahabuddin, Takao Yoshimatsu Graduate School of Bioresources, Mie University Email: 515m3s1@m.mie-u.ac.jp INTRODUCTION Fish feed is the single largest expenditure in semi-intensive and intensive fish culture operations. One major reason for its high cost is the animal protein content used in feed formulations. Animal proteins, for example, fish meals are the biggest proportions of fish feed. Recently, researchers have been looking into cheap plant-origin ingredients as a substitute for animal proteins in fish feed to lower cost. The present experiment focuses on a feeding analysis and biological composition of Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus fed with diets containing boiled Moringa oleifera leaf, as a low cost locally available ingredients. Fig.1. International market price for fish oil and fish meal (FAO, 2008) MATERIALS AND METHODS Juvenile tilapia were distributed (8 fish/tank) into twelve 10 L tanks in a closed recirculating system with a photoperiod of 12D: 12L. Fish were fed with test diets containing different levels of Moringa leaf meal (MLM 0, MLM 10, MLM 20, MLM 30), at 6% body weight for a total of six (6) weeks. In a two-week interval, individual weights were taken until the end of the experiment where all fish were sacrificed and sent for body composition proximate analysis. Ingredients MLM 0 MLM 10 MLM 20 MLM 30 Fish Meal 40 37 33 30 Processed Moringa 10 20 Cassava Powder Rice Bran 28 21 15 8 Fish Oil 4 Binder (CMC) Vitamin Premix 2 Trace Mineral Premix Table 1 Feed composition of experimental diets RESULTS   MLM 0 MLM10 MLM 20 MLM 30 Mean Initial Weight (g) 4.53 ± 0.44 4.36 ± 0.10 4.44 ± 0.13 4.54 ± 0.29 Mean Final Weight (g) 10.88 ± 0.60 11.52 ± 1.68 11.13 ± 0.43 10.07 ± 0.46 Average Daily Gain (gfish-1day-1) 0.79 ± 0.07 1.78 ± 0.78 0.96 ± 0.52 0.72 ± 0.01 Specific Growth Rate (%/day) 0.45 ± 0.02 0.48 ± 0.07 0.47 ± 0.04 0.41 ± 0.01 Feed Coversion Ratio 3.67 ± 0.20 3.49 ± 1.31 3.51 ± 0.56 4.08 ± 0.16 Protein Efficiency Ratio 0.81 ± 0.04 0.96 ± 0.18 0.74 ± 0.07 0.62 ± 0.02 Fig.2. Experimental growth curves Fig.3. Average weight gain of fishes Table 2 Growth performance and nutrient utilization of O.niloticus fed with boiled MLM diets CONCLUSION In terms of average growth, fish fed with MLM 10 and MLM 20 diets performed the best and had the highest mean live weight gain of (7.16 ± 1.59) g and (6.69 ± 0.55) g, respectively. Fish fed with MLM 10 and MLM 20 test diets had the best FCR, PER and Specific Growth Rate SGR (%). The present results show that among the test diets, a replacement of fish meal with 10-20% of Moringa leaf would not have a negative effect on the growth of juvenile tilapia.