Rotifers do eat green algae including Nannochloropsis, Scenedesmus and Chlorella Vulgaris.
Rotifers benefit from eating these algae for both the nutrients and energy as well as in controlling the algal blooms which can impact the aquatic environments negatively.
Foods you can feed rotifers are microalgae, like Isochrysis and Nannochloropsis, which provide the rotifers with essential nutrients such as lipids and proteins.
You can also feed rotifers protozoa, bacterial detritus or even feeds like RG Complete and Rotifer Diet that ensures the rotifers are well nourished and healthy.
Rotifers can go without food for a few days to as long as two weeks or longer, depending on the age and species of the rotifer.
Some species of rotifers enter a state of dormancy to survive longer periods of time without food and younger rotifers or rotifers that did not reproduce before food deprivation might survive longer by suppressing their reproduction.
And older rotifers and reproductive rotifers have reduced survival times without food.
Many rotifers are indeed free swimming and use a crown of cilia called the corona to propel themselves through the water and capture their food.
Although some species of rotifers are not free swimming as they instead crawl along substrates using their feet and their adhesive glands and even live attached to submerged plants or even reside in secreted tubes.
Rotifers indicate low toxicity, sufficient oxygen levels, stable conditions and appropriate sludge ages.
The rotifers role in consuming of bacteria and algae also makes them important for nutrient cycling and as a food source for other aquatic organisms, and directly reflecting the overall food web health.
Rotifers also serve as very important bioindicators of freshwater ecosystem health and wastewater treatment quality.
The reason why rotifers are important to humans is because rotifers are very valuable model organisms that serve as a food source in aquaculture and are also used as bioindicators to monitor water quality.
Rotifers are also important to humans for studying of aging and genetics as a result of their shared genes with humans.
Rotifers also offer insights into developing new human medications, including antibiotic medications, through their unique ability of acquiring and utilizing foreign DNA.
Rotifers have a short lifespan and transparent bodies, which makes rotifers ideal for studying of biological processes of aging, including genetic mechanisms and the effects of caloric restriction.
Rotifers also share many genes with us humans, which allows for scientists to investigate the novel genetic mechanisms that are related to human healthspan and human lifespan.
And rotifers have also been observed to produce compounds which can lead to development of new antibiotics or treatments for parasitic diseases by using acquired genes from microbes and other bacteria.
Rotifers are also a main food source for larval fish in aquaculture, which provides the fish with essential fatty acids, proteins and also micronutrients for the healthy development of fish.
Rotifers are an important part of the freshwater zooplankton and are a major food source and with many species also contributing to the decomposition of soil
Rotifers also eat particulate organic detritus, algae, dead bacteria and protozoans and they eat particles up to 10 micrometers in size.
And like crustaceans, rotifers also contribute to nutrient recycling and so they are used in fish tanks to help keep fish tanks water clean and prevent clouds of waste matter
Rotifers also affect the species composition of algae in ecosystems through their choice in grazing and they may even compete with caldocera and copepods for planktonic food source.