diff --git a/package/MDAnalysis/coordinates/base.py b/package/MDAnalysis/coordinates/base.py
index 2bd77133bc..9a7f0942c8 100644
--- a/package/MDAnalysis/coordinates/base.py
+++ b/package/MDAnalysis/coordinates/base.py
@@ -1670,6 +1670,8 @@ def __init__(self, filename, convert_units=True, n_atoms=None, **kwargs):
                 self.filename = filename
             else:
                 self.filename = str(filename)
+                if "MMTF" in self.filename:
+                    self.filename = filename
               
         self.convert_units = convert_units