The paper highlights the growing importance of tilapia as a farmed food fish species over the coming decade; tilapia currently being the third largest group of farmed finfish species produced after the cyprinids and salmonids, with global tilapia production increasing three-fold since 1984 from 186,544 mt to 599,135 mt in 1994 (4.6 per cent total finfish production and valued at US dollars 835 million) and growing at an average compound rate of 12.4 per cent per year. However, as with the majority of finfish species produced within intensive farming systems the development of commercial aquafeeds for these species has usually been based (although to a lesser extent than for carnivorous finfish species) upon the use of fishmeal as the main source of dietary protein. The paper consequently reviews the major studies and efforts which have been conducted to date concerning the dietary replacement of fishmeal within compound aquafeeds for tilapia with alternative protein sources or fishmeal replacers, including fishery and terrestrial animal by-product meals, oilseed meals and by-products, aquatic plants, single-cell proteins, and legumes and cereal by-products. In addition, the paper presents information on the nutritive value, dietary inclusion level, constraints, and cost-benefit of using the most promising fishmeal replacers, and also discusses some generalised approaches for conducting and reporting investigations on the development of fishmeal replacers.