#4913 · 🪼 jellyfish, starfish, worms & co
Snail Fur
🇳🇱 Ruwe zeerasp ·Hydractinia echinata
🪼 Jellyfish, starfish, worms & co 📍 in the Netherlands
7 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
what is it?
Hydractinia echinata is a colonial marine hydroid which is often found growing on dead, hermit-crabbed shells of marine gastropod species. This hydroid species is also commonly known as snail fur , a name which refers to the furry appearance that the hydroids give to a shell.
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- Spotted 13 times in the Netherlands on iNaturalist.
- 465 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
fact sheet
- English
- Snail Fur
- Nederlands
- Ruwe zeerasp
- scientific name
- Hydractinia echinata
- class
- Hydrozoa
- order
- Anthoathecata
- family
- Hydractiniidae
- sightings in NL
- 13
- sightings in Europe
- 91
- sightings worldwide
- 465
- GBIF records in NL
- 914
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 203796, Wikidata Q2325693, GBIF 2265871, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.