<jats:p>The feeding behavior of the cosmopolitan cold-water coral (CWC) <jats:italic>Desmophyllum dianthus</jats:italic> (Cnidaria: Scleractinia) is still poorly known. Its usual deep distribution restricts direct observations, and manipulative experiments are so far limited to prey that do not occur in CWC natural habitat. During a series of replicated incubations, we assessed the functional response of this coral feeding on a medium-sized copepod (<jats:italic>Calanoides patagoniensis</jats:italic>) and a large euphausiid (<jats:italic>Euphausia vallentini</jats:italic>). Corals showed a Type I functional response, where feeding rate increased linearly with prey abundance, as predicted for a tentaculate passive suspension feeder. No significant differences in feeding were found between prey items, and corals were able to attain a maximum feeding rate of 10.99 mg C h<jats:sup>−1</jats:sup>, which represents an ingestion of the 11.4% of the coral carbon biomass per hour. These findings suggest that <jats:italic>D. dianthus</jats:italic> is a generalist zooplankton predator capable of exploiting dense aggregations of zooplankton over a wide prey size-range.</jats:p>