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ROTIFERS. characteristics. Rotifers are small animals. Their outer coat looks like 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
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characteristics • Rotifers are small animals. • Their outer coat looks like 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 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 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 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 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