en aquaculture aquaculture پژوهشي Orginal research papers <span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:120%"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="TR" style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="line-height:120%"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><span style="color:black">The present study was carried out to investigate the effect of replacing some conventional feedstuffs (barley and yellow corn) with mallow, <i>Malva parviflora,</i> leaves meal on the growth and feeding efficiency of sailfin molly, <i>Poecilia latipinna</i>. Five experimental diets containing 0, 5, 10, 15, and 20% of mallow leaves meal M₀, M₅, M₁₀, M₁₅, and M₂₀ respectively, were prepared by replacing barley and yellow corn. A total of 90 fish (2.55<a name="_Hlk107753220">&plusmn;</a>0.17 g) were used, distributed equally into fifteen plastic tanks at a rate of 6 fish per tank. The experiment lasted for 60 days, during which fish were fed the experimental diets to satiation twice daily. Results exhibited a gradual significant (<a name="_Hlk107752480"><i>p</i></a><0.05) increase in the feed intake FI (r=0.935) of the fishes with increasing dietary mallow leave replacement. There were no significant differences (<i>p</i>>0.05) in specific growth rate (SGR), feed conversion ratio (FCR), and protein efficiency ratio of sailfin molly fed control (M₀) diet compared to fish fed on M₅ and M₁₀diets at the end of the experiment. Increasing the involvement of mallow in M₁₅ and M₂₀ diets led to inhibited SGR, FCR, and PER significantly (<i>p</i><0.05) compared to the control diet. In conclusion, using mallow dried meal in the diets at a 10% level was proved to be more suitable with no noticeable adverse effects on the growth and feeding efficiency of experimental fish.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span> Feedstuff, Fish nutrition, Growth, Mallow meal, Sailfin molly 1192 1203 http://jifro.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-4468-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 R.A. Al-Tameemi riyadh.irmayla@uobasrah.edu.iq 100319475328460046526 100319475328460046526 Yes Department of Fisheries and Marine Resources, College of Agriculture, University of Basrah, Basrah, Iraq R.M. Sayed-Lafi raadalsayed@lycos.com 100319475328460046527 100319475328460046527 No National University of Science and Technology, Thi-Qar, Iraq S.M. Najim salah.mahdi@uobasrah.edu.iq 100319475328460046528 100319475328460046528 No Department of Fisheries and Marine Resources, College of Agriculture, University of Basrah, Basrah, Iraq