Abstract: The use of roasted or boiled cottonseed meal in the diets of Clarias gariepinus fingerlings were evaluated. Seven isoproteic and isocaloric diets were formulated to provide 40% crude protein in which fish meal in the reference diet was partially replaced by the following processed cottonseed meals; 30, 35 and 40% roasted and 30, 35 and 40% boiled cottonseed meals, respectively. Fish were fed to satiation in triplicate treatments for 56 days in plastic circular tanks. Nutrient composition analysis showed that processing methods of roasting and boiling influenced the nutrient density of cottonseed meal, with crude protein levels ranging between 41.00 and 34.60% for roasted and boiled cottonseed meal respectively. The result showed that growth performance and nutrient utilization of fish fed roasted cottonseed meal dietary inclusions (70% fish meal + 30% roasted cottonseed meal) was similar to fish fed the fish meal-based diet at 5% level of significance. However, fish fed the diet containing boiled cottonseed meal exhibited lower daily weight gain, protein efficiency ratio and specific growth rate. Generally, fish performed better when fed diets containing roasted cottonseed meals than boiled cottonseed meals and compared favourably with fish fed the fish meal-based diet.