Ammonia is the major limiting factor in intensive aquaculture production systems. Therefore, quantification of ammonia excretion is important for the water quality management in aquaculture systems. Ammonia excretion is known to be affected by many factors such as body weight and dietary protein level (DPL). In this study, experiments were carried out to investigate the effects of body weight and DPLs on the rates of ammonia excretion of Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus. Three sizes of fishes (mean initial weight; 4.8 g,42.7 g and 176.8 g) were fed each of two dietary protein levels (30.5% and 35.5%). Daily feeding levels for the three fish sizes of 4.8 g, 42.7 g and 176.8 g were 6%, 3%, and 1.5% body weight per day, respectively. Each group of fish was stocked in a 17.1-L aquarium and all treatments were triplicated. Following feeding, the weight-specific ammonia excretion rate of O. niloticus increased, peaked at 4 to 8 h, and returned to pre-feeding levels within 24 h. Total ammonia nitrogen (TAN) excretion.ate per unit weight decreased with the increase of fish weight for each diet (P<0.05). The TAN excretion rate increased with increasing dietary protein content for each fish size (P<0.05). TAN excretion rates (Y) for each diet with different fish weights were described by the following equations: low DPL diet (30.5%): $Y;(mg;kg^{-1};d^{-1})=955.69-147.12;lnX;(r^2=0.95)$, high DPL diet (35.5%): $Y;(mg;kg^{-1};d^{-1})=1362.41-209.79;lnX;(r^2=0.99)$. Where: X=body weight (g wet wt.). The TAN excretion rates ranged 28.5%-37.1% of the total nitrogen ingested for the low DPL diet (30.5%) and 37.4-38.5% for the high DPL diet (35.5%). Total nitrogen losses of fish fed the high DPL diet $(35.5%;;0.26sim0.91g;kg^{-1};d^{-1})$ were higher than those fed the low DPL diet $(30.5%;;0.22sim0.68g;kg^{-1};d^{-1})$. The losses decreased per kg of fish as fish size increased. Results will provide valuable information fer water quality management and culture of Nile tilapia in recirculating aquaculture systems.