Wow, the Cobra story is rough. Peanut has pretty much steered me toward the acutirostris but before this long thread I had read Taz's on being able to have some pikes in with other fish and he just said above that even Marm's have worked out ok for him.
There is a possibility that a LFS here in Houston may be pulling a pair of Marm's in from somewhere in the NE (positive it is not Rapps because he has mentioned Rapps before). The owner of the LFS was initially going to keep the pikes himself but I sort of brought up my interest. I don't know the size but I have a feeling they are substantial because we are probably talking about $300 cost to me.
The acutirostris seems like the safer play but the other alternative is pretty interesting.