Rotifers are ubiquitous, being found practically everywhere. We had a dry spell when I first got my scope so I retrieved a teaspoon of dry dirt from my eavetrough and added water; in two hours there were hundreds of rotifers and by the next day there were thousands cavorting about.
Rotifers of different types have bodies which differ considerably. My pictures capture only a few of these body shapes.
The rotifer pictures are available by clicking on the descriptions, this to minimize bandwidth for those who arrive here by accident.
Bdelloid rotifers are the most common. This one is a little different than most, a bit plumper and she has little red eyes on her rostrum (between the fans). Darkfield
A bdelloid, hanging by its tail from some algae
Another bdelloid type rotifer, this one with an unusually long tail.
A bdelloid hiding in the weeds
Lepadella probably. Brightfield
Lepadella with two eggs. Darkfield provides better colors than brightfield in many cases.
Same as above with more background showing, darkfield.
Rotifer and egg; she couldn't seem to shake the egg loose.
Rotifer of a different type
A closeup of the same one
A graceful swimmer with what look like extra tail fins
A colony of loricate rotifers
A loricate rotifer anchored to a piece of algae
This page was by John Moran, resident Balplan Mechanic and XHTML tweaker.
