Sparse file is a file that contains blocks of zeroes that are not allocated on disk (see w:Sparse file). By design, ploop images can't contain such non-allocated blocks.
While ploop is never creating sparse image files, they can be accidentally made so when tools such as rsync --sparse or cp --sparse=always</code are used to copy images. So, one should not use backup or copy tools that create sparse files out of non-sparse ones.
Since ploop-1.10, ploop images are checked for being sparse and are automatically fixed on mount, in case DiskDescriptor.xml is used. Otherwise, you can use ploop check --repair-sparse to check for and repair such images.
See also