diff --git a/package/MDAnalysis/coordinates/ParmEd.py b/package/MDAnalysis/coordinates/ParmEd.py
index 8b28bb47ca3..a714d5a0fcb 100644
--- a/package/MDAnalysis/coordinates/ParmEd.py
+++ b/package/MDAnalysis/coordinates/ParmEd.py
@@ -172,10 +172,7 @@ def convert(self, obj):
             # make sure to use atoms (Issue 46)
             ag_or_ts = obj.atoms
         except AttributeError:
-            if isinstance(obj, base.Timestep):
-                ag_or_ts = obj.copy()
-            else:
-                raise_from(TypeError("No Timestep found in obj argument"), None)
+            raise TypeError("No atoms found in obj argument") from None
 
         # Check for topology information
         missing_topology = []
diff --git a/testsuite/MDAnalysisTests/coordinates/test_parmed.py b/testsuite/MDAnalysisTests/coordinates/test_parmed.py
index 907c35135ed..99c93ea4bb7 100644
--- a/testsuite/MDAnalysisTests/coordinates/test_parmed.py
+++ b/testsuite/MDAnalysisTests/coordinates/test_parmed.py
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@
 
 from MDAnalysisTests.coordinates.base import _SingleFrameReader
 from MDAnalysisTests.coordinates.reference import RefAdKSmall
+from MDAnalysis.coordinates.ParmEd import ParmEdConverter
 
 from MDAnalysisTests.datafiles import (
     GRO,
@@ -286,3 +287,8 @@ class TestParmEdConverterPDB(BaseTestParmEdConverter):
     def test_equivalent_coordinates(self, ref, output):
         assert_almost_equal(ref.coordinates, output.coordinates, decimal=3)
 
+def test_incorrect_object_passed_typeerror():
+    err = "No atoms found in obj argument"
+    with pytest.raises(TypeError, match=err):
+        c = ParmEdConverter()
+        c.convert("we still don't support emojis :(")