ROTIFERS
characteristics
• Rotifers are small animals.
• Their outer coat looks like
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clear glass
Sometimes the glassy outer
coat are covered with spines or
spikes
They have a ring of hair at
their head end called cilia
which beat in a wave making
currents to bring in food
particles
Organs made up of brain,
stomach and intestines
They belong to the ‘phylum
rotifera’
HABITAT
• They live in freshwater
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some of the species live
in freshwater
Some are attached to
plant stems while others
swim through the water
They live in moist sands
along the shore and in
the gravel of aquarium
tanks
FEEDING
• They eat algae debris
and other protists,
bacteria and even
other rotifers
REPRODUCTION
• Some species of rotifers only sexual
reproduction, some only use asexual
reproduction and some have both
sexual and asexual phasp
• In species that use only asexual
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reproduction are all females she
produces the egg that develop into
new embryos without fertilization
The daughters are genetically identical
to the mother
Rotifers that use only sexual
reproduction the males store sperm in
a bag that they transfer to females
during mating fertilization takes place
inside the females
Later the female attach the eggs to
crustaceans called sea fleas where
they stay until the young hatch
Interesting facts
• One rotifer is a parasite
• It lives inside an algae called the
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volvox
The volvox is a colony of algae
sells that live together in a sphere
The parasite rotifer lives together
in a sphere
It munches away on the inside of
the colony and lay its eggs
The damage slowly destroys the
perfect globe shape of the volvex
When the rotifer has eaten
enough of its host it escapes and
swims of to find another victim
INTERESTING FACTS
• The name rotifer came
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from the Latin word rota
meaning wheel and ferre
meaning ‘to carry’
When these animals are
swimming or feeding the
beating of their hair like
fibers give the illusion
that the animal carries
two small rotating wheels