Parallel and Serial connection give strange numbers with multimeter.

[SlaviaSol]

Greetings to all,
This is my first post and I have just started out playing around with solar panels and electricity in general. I have bought 2 identical panels from China and by measuring each one of them with a multi-meter I am receiving 0.4A and around 15-19 volt/each. If I connect them in serial I get in total almost 40 volts and 0.8A.
I know volts should increase but why does the amps increase in serial?

If I connect them in parallel which I really want, to increase amps but not the volts, my measurements are always 0.4 amps when in reality it should read 0.8 amps.
What am I doing wrong here?

I must say that I am new to multimeters also so maybe I am measuring it wrong or have connected wires wrong?

When testing serial I connected on of the + wires from one panel with the - on the other and made measurements on the other two cables.
When testing parallel I connected + with + and - with - . Is this correct?

Cheers to all

[littleharbor]

Are you testing these panels indoors? The current numbers are very low. Typical 12 volt panels have a open circuit voltage in the 19.5 - 22.5 range. They need to be outdoors and aimed at the sun.
Can you tell us what panels you have and their specs?
Yes it sounds like you are doing the connections correctly. Are you swapping the red+ lead on your meter to the amp/current port on the meter?