pictus cats will get pretty big, I'd minimum them at like 55/75
I don't know how their personalities would go, but for a while I had a few rams in with a pretty large (4-5 inch) syadontis eruptus and they tended not to interact
Feeding issues may be a little tough, but I think they would be workable, I do not think a pictus would grow large enough quickly enough to eat rams, but any fry you have would dissapear in short order. I would not hesitate to mix rams and pictus in a tank personally.
As far as feeding issues, pictus cats are skittish enough that I would think you could feed your rams without too much interference from the cats. mine tend to only hunt in the daytime when I let them get pretty hungry. For the most part they dart out of hiding places for specific chunks of food and do their big time hunting when the lights are out.
Dave
rams are suposed to be quite peacful(exept when they have fry following them around). as long as the other fish won't beat the rams up or starve them, they should be fine. the pictus I don't know about though.also about the lifespan of the rams: you said that youv've heard about 3 years, and some body else said they grow to 3". bettas are similar in age and size but some live to be 8,most die at 3 depends on how well thier taken care of. don't know if that aplies to rams, but thaught it might help.