Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2018) 7(9): 804-816 804 Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2018.709.096 Effects of Replacing Soybean Meal with Crassocephalum crepidioides leaf Meal on Growth, Nutrient Utilisation and Whole Body Composition of Labeo rohita Fingerlings Khinlak Gangmei*, Kamal Kant Jain, Narottam Prasad Sahu, Ashutosh Dharmendra Deo and Kundan Kumar Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Versova, Mumbai - 400 06, India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction Over the past three decades, global aquaculture production expanded at an average annual rate of more than 8%, from 5.2 million tons in 1981 to 62.7 million tons in 2011. Aquaculture's contribution to total food fish supply grew from 9% in 1980 to 48% in 2011 (FAO, 2013). Hence, a projected model of aquaculture production possible to increase from 28.6 million tons in 1997 up to 53.6 million tons by 2020 where developing countries would be responsible for 79% of world food fish production, with 77% of International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 7 Number 09 (2018) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of soybean meal replacement with Crassocephalum crepidioides leaf meal (CLM) on growth, nutrient utilisation and whole body composition of Labeorohita fingerlings. A C. crepidioides leaf meal (CLM) was prepared by removing antinutritional factors through indigenous processing technique. The antinutritional factors of the processed CLM were found to decrease substantially, and the in vitro digestibility of the CLM was 75.31%. The nutritional potential of CLM in the diets of Labeorohita fingerlings (initial average weight 5.62±0.07g) were assessed in a 60 days feeding trial. Five isonitrogenous (305.0±0.08g Kg −1 ) and isocaloric (16.74±0.02 MJ Kg −1 ) experimental diets were formulated with a graded level of CLM, i.e. 0%, 5%, 10% or 15% in replacement for soybean meal, and designated as control, CLM5, CLM10, CLM15 respectively were fed with their respective diets to satiation twice daily at 10:00h and 18:00h. At the end of the experiment, growth performance and nutrient utilization indices such as individual weight gain (99.30-135.10%), specific growth rate (1.15-1.42%), feed conversion ratio (1.76-2.26), protein efficiency ratio (1.44-1.87) were not significantly (p>0.05) affected by the dietary treatments irrespective of inclusion levels of CLM. Hepatosomatic index (1.04-1.31), intestinal somatic index (4.19-4.65), survival (100%) and whole body composition of the fish among various dietary groups did not vary significantly (p>0.05). Thus, this study revealed that CLM is a promising alternative source of protein which could replace soybean meal up to 15% in the diets of L. rohita fingerlings without any adverse effects on growth, nutrient utilisation, whole body composition. Keywords Crassocephalum crepidioides leaf meal (CLM), Labeo rohita, Indigenous knowledge, Growth, Nutrient utilisation Accepted: 06 August 2018 Available Online: 10 September 2018 Article Info