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Hello everyone. I have a friend I am trying to help who acquired some wild caught plecos that have sunken bellies. What is the go to meds to treat them? Thanks in advance.
-Tony

What kind of plecos? I usually treat with PraziPro, then tank the fish with healthy common Ancistrus and let the poop accumulate. I think they new fish get inoculated by the poop germs of the healthy fish.

Good luck,
Eric

There are three wormers, honestly I've never noticed any difference between them. Flubendazole, praziquantel and levamisole. Each does target particular different taxa of parasite but identifying which is causing issues is going to be challenging. Generally it's best to treat once then treat again a week later so crossing out which treatment works if any do isn't a great issue.

One aspect of recently imported fish is as far as I know they are fasted for the journey, it makes sense to reduce waste in the bag wild or captive bred will be. Not all fishes recover from this and some species are a particular challenge, or maybe some genera. Rather then worms I think this is most likely the case. So it's worth ensuring the fish are feeding and feeding enough, I'm rather relaxed on what they eat eating as long as they are at this stage. Some diets are easier to get some fishes eating then others.

What Bekateen said is totally true. It's likely over this process they have lost a lot of gut biota, even more so if treated. It's not just bacteria, archaea but worms (loose definition of the term) can have a benefit. So building this back up will help with digestion in general.
I don't jump to medications unless I have good reason to do so, most stores I know worm their fishes, I don't myself. Partially I'm thinking by treating are we removing what these fishes need to actually thrive or be healthy? It's an interesting topic even if it doesn't answer the question.