High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Notropis, commonly known as the eastern shiners or (locally) simply "shiners", is a genus of cyprinid fish found in North America, and is the second largest genus of freshwater fish on the continent. Most small minnows found in North American belong to Notropis. Not all small cyprinids commonly referred to as "shiners" belong to Notropis (Page & Burr 1991). Their closest relatives appear to be the genera Cyprinella (satinfin shiners) and Platygobio (flathead chubs), though their precise relationships have not yet been robustly resolved (Simons & Mayden 1997).