Complete replacement of fish meal by black soldier fly meal in Nile tilapia juvenile’s diet: effect on growth performances and feed efficiency

Four experimental diets were formulated to be isonitrogenous (46.4 to 52.7% crude protein) and isoenergetic (16.2 to 16.5 kJ g ^− 1 ) to test three experimental diets in which 33.3, 66.6 and 100% of fish meal was replaced with black soldier fly ( Hermetia illucens, L.) larvae meal (BSF1, BSF2, BSF3) versus a control diet (FM) containing 180 g FM/kg for feeding Nile tilapia ( Oreochromis niloticus ) juveniles (11.8 ± 0.2g).The fish fed with the BSF diets had significantly (P > 0.05) higher final growth performances than the fish fed the FM diet. The Apparent Digestibility Coefficient (ADC) of crude protein, Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR), Hepatosomatic Index (HSI) as well as muscle protein and lipid composition of fish muscles were not significantly different whatever the diet.BSF meal is a good source of protein and lipids for Nile tilapia juveniles and could successfully replace FM up to 100% in their diets with improved growth performances.