This dataset was generated in the frame of the co-operation between the Universidad Austral de Chile (https://www.uach.cl), the Huinay Scientific Field Station (http://www.huinay.cl) and the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research (http://www.awi.de) in the frame of the project PACOC "Plankton- And cold-water COral ecology in Comau Fjord, Chile. The study was also embedded in activities of the Research Center Dynamics of High Latitude Marine Ecosystems (IDEAL) (http://www.centroideal.cl/eng/).

Replicated incubations were performed to assess how many preys (copepods or krill) may be ingested by individuals of the cold-water coral Desmophyllum dianthus. Coral specimens were kept in a 500 mL Schott bottle, each. The bottles were filled without air headspace (790 mL of 20 µm-filtered seawater) before zooplankton was added in different abundances. The experimental period was three hours.